GENEVA:
French four-time Formula One champion Alain Prost was injured during a violent robbery at his home in Switzerland, Swiss media reported Saturday.
Switzerland’s biggest-selling newspaper Blick said Prost, 71, sustained a minor head injury during the attack, while one of his sons was forced to open the family safe and the assailants fled with the contents.
A statement issued on Thursday from the Vaud cantonal police force said a family living in Nyon, northeast of Geneva, was the victim of a robbery at their home.
The incident took place on Tuesday, at around 8:30am (0630 GMT).
Contacted by AFP on Saturday, the police declined to give the identities of the victims of the crime, and refused to comment on whether the incident concerned the Prost family.
Thursday’s statement said the perpetrators “entered the house while the occupants were present, threatened them, and forced one of the family members to open a safe before fleeing with stolen goods”.
Despite an extensive search operation, the perpetrators have not yet been apprehended, it said.
– ‘Large-scale search’ –
“Several masked individuals entered the house. Once inside, they threatened the occupants and slightly injured one family member in the head, under circumstances that are still being investigated.
“The perpetrators then forced another family member to open a safe before fleeing with stolen goods, of which the precise inventory is currently being assessed.
“The Vaud cantonal police immediately deployed a large-scale search operation,” the statement said.
The cantonal public prosecutor’s office has opened a criminal investigation, which is ongoing to try and apprehend the perpetrators, it said.
Police said the response involved the Vaud cantonal police, the Nyon regional police, the dog unit, security officers, the forensic science unit, the customs and border security office, the French gendarmerie and a psychological support team for the family.
Contacted by AFP on Saturday, a Vaud police spokesman said the investigation was still ongoing but could not reveal whether any arrests had been made.
“Every effort is being made to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of the attack,” the spokesman said.
Blick said there had been an alarming trend over the last year of burglaries in the Lake Geneva region of Switzerland targeting wealthy individuals, often perpetrated by cross-border gangs from neighbouring France targeting prestigious watch collections.
Prost competed in Formula One between 1980 and 1993 with the McLaren, Renault, Ferrari and Williams teams. He won the world drivers’ championship in 1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993.
Only Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton (seven each) and Juan Manuel Fangio (five) have won the championship more times than Prost, while Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen have also won the title four times.
