Aussie tourist killed in Zim

Harare - An Australian visitor has been stabbed to death at the Zimbabwean resort of Victoria Falls, an incident likely to further shake the country's ailing tourist industry.

Australia's high Commissioner to Zimbabwe, Jonathan Brown, said the tourist's body was found on Saturday and the motive appeared to have been robbery. He could not reveal the man's name as his next-of-kin had not been notified. Diplomats from the mission would fly to Victoria Falls on Monday to consult local police, he said.

Chief Superintendent Alexio Paradzai, a senior officer commanding police at Victoria Falls, said the tourist was repeatedly and fatally stabbed "as he stepped out of the Rain Forest", a fenced and closely guarded area with spectacular views of the two-kilometre wide waterfall. Paradzai said no arrests had yet been made. He said two cameras were found by the body.

Residents said since the murder was discovered, police paramilitaries had been conducting an aggressive campaign to check identities in a search for vagrants, who are the prime suspects.

In the past three years of political unrest linked to President Robert Mugabe's self-declared "civil war" against white farmers, Zimbabwe's tourist industry has suffered near-collapse, with bed occupancy rates at Victoria Falls, once a world centre for visitors, falling as low as four percent. - Sapa-DPA

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