UF student group robbed in South Africa

A group of University of Florida students were robbed at gunpoint in South Africa on Monday morning in Pretoria, South Africa.

None of the 21 students or two faculty members on the enrichment trip were physically harmed in the incident, UF spokesman Steve Orlando wrote in an email.

The UF group was on a trip coordinated through the Lombardi and Stamps Scholarship Program, part of the UF Honors Program, and were on a bus to a township when it passed through a security gate and was followed by a car carrying six armed gunmen.

The bus was then stopped by the gunmen and everyone aboard was ordered off and marched to a kindergarten classroom at a nearby school. With the kindergarten students in the room, the armed men directed the students and faculty members to give up their valuables, Orlando said.

The group complied with the demand and the gunmen left.

Local residents arrived in an attempt to protect the group, and one of them was grazed by a bullet while another was pistol-whipped. The UF students gave first-aid to the injured locals.

Once back at the University of Pretoria, students met with counselors and U.S. Embassy personnel. As of now, three of the students are in the process of returning to the U.S.

“We’re just tremendously thankful that everyone is OK and grateful to the local residents who came to help our group,” Orlando said.

The students are two weeks into a three-week trip, and it is unclear whether they will continue the trip.

The university is working with Team Assist and Cultural Insurance Services International, a worldwide travel insurance company, to bring back any students who wish to return home.

Tuesday's activities have been canceled while students recover and potentially work out travel plans to return home.

Four trip destinations are advertised on the UF Honors Program website including South Africa, Peru, Mexico and an unnamed U.S. location. The trips occur before each school year and are said to broaden students’ “worldview through stimulating experiences at home or abroad.”

UF has been sending students to South Africa for many years without incident, Orlando said.

“We will be evaluating this program and location moving forward,” he wrote.