LONDON: Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone suffered a minor head injury when he was attacked outside his London office this week and robbed of jewelry worth 200,000 pounds ($314,000). The 80-year-old Ecclestone was treated in a hospital after being punched and kicked by four men after arriving at the Knightsbridge offices of Formula One Holdings Wednesday night, London Police said Friday. Ecclestone was released after treatment. Police are investigating the incident but have made no arrests. Police said Ecclestone was accompanied by a woman, identified in British media reports as his Brazilian girlfriend Fabiana Flosi, at the time of the attack at around 10:30 PM. Earlier this month, Ecclestone complained there were not enough police officers on the streets of London. “Normally like in America or anywhere you go, there are people getting mugged,” Ecclestone said. “In London, it's a funny thing you know. It's surprising in Oxford Street the number of people that get mugged there hourly. We should have more police there.” Knightsbridge is on the other side of Hyde Park from Oxford Street. Ecclestone made the comments in response to an attempted attack on Formula One driver Jenson Button in Sao Paolo ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, suggesting that robbers only go after people who look vulnerable. “They look for victims, they look for anyone that looks like a soft touch and not too bright,” Ecclestone said. “The people that look a bit soft and simple, they will always have a go at.” Button's driver had to swerve out of a traffic jam to dodge an attempted robbery by heavily-armed gunmen approaching the armored car. A spokesman for Scotland Yard said police were called to the scene in the swanky Knightsbridge area on Wednesday night to “reports of a man and a woman robbed”. No arrests had been made, the spokesman said. Four men were waiting for him and his girlfriend as they arrived at the headquarters of his business. The offices are near Buckingham Palace and within walking distance of Oxford Street, one of the capital's busiest shopping thoroughfares.
