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Ecclestone injured in London mugging

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone suffered a head injury after muggers robbed him of jewellery in London, police said , just weeks after he said only “simple” people got attacked in the city.

Robbers punched and kicked the 80-year-old billionaire to the ground after pouncing on him and his girlfriend Fabiana Flosi, 31, outside the headquarters of his business empire, Formula One Holdings, police said.

The four attackers escaped with 200,000 pounds (236,379 euros/315,268 dollars) worth of jewellery including a watch and diamond rings, the Daily Mail newspaper reported, adding that they had been lying in wait for the couple.

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”.

“The man was taken to a west London hospital for treatment to a minor head injury and was subsequently discharged. There were no reports of any other injuries,” the spokesman said.

“The items stolen are believed to be a quantity of jewellery.”

No arrests had been made, the spokesman said.

Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder for motor racing’s elite division, compared London to Sao Paolo earlier this month after Formula 1 driver Jenson Button escaped a roadside assault ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

“You have to remember we have a lot of problems in England, Oxford Street and places, and in New York people get mugged,” he said.

“They look for victims, they look for people who are a little bit slow and simple, but the people who look a bit bright, they never go after them.”