Mallika Sherawat attacked in Paris

Bollywood actor Mallika Sherawat was punched in the face and sprayed with teargas by masked attackers in an upmarket area of Paris, police said on Thursday.

The 40-year-old celebrity and her friend were attacked by three masked men who tried to steal her handbag. The men then fled, leaving Sherawat and her friend to call emergency services.

The couple told the police that the men had ambushed them in the lobby of an apartment building where they were staying in the chic 16th arrondissement of the French capital on Friday (Nov. 11).

The incident comes just weeks after U.S. reality TV star Kim Kardashian was attacked in Paris in a robbery in which a masked gang stole jewellery worth more than $10 million. However, investigators said they were mystified that although the attackers had tried to take Ms. Sherawat’s handbag, they had fled empty-handed. “We cannot understand why the attackers fled without taking anything,” a source said.

A criminal investigation has been launched, with detectives working on the assumption that this was an attempted robbery, media reports said. Ms. Sherawat has not reacted to the reports.

Ms. Sherawat, whose real name is Reema Lambha, came to prominence in 2004 thanks to a film that helped bust taboos around sex in the Indian film industry. She is well-known for her role in the film Murder and also starred in Jackie Chan’s The Myth in 2005.