Robbers wound soldier

An Armed Forces member was severely wounded while he tried to stop a robbery attempt on a public minibus yesterday.

First Private Lembette, 30, sustained two severe stab wounds to the chest during a scuffle with four armed men who tried to rob the minibus' passengers, Suara Pembaruan reported.

The daily said that Lembette, who is posted in Malang, East Java, his wife, one of his children and his brother arrived at the Senen railway station after traveling by train from Malang. Then Lambette, who was wearing civilian clothes, and his family boarded a minibus plying the Senen-Kalideres route as they were intending to proceed to Lampung, southern Sumatra.

Halfway into Kalideres, four men boarded the minibus and held up the driver and the passengers with sickles and knives.

Lembette asked that the robbers stop, announcing that he was a member of the armed forces. However, his plea went unheeded as one of the robbers pointed his knife at the soldier's chest. Lembette put up game resistance but soon found himself mobbed by the four armed men in a heavily one-sided fight.

The robbers fled the scene leaving the badly injured Lambette helplessly sprawled on the ground.

He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital. (bas)