Filipina stabbed while fighting off four burglars

A Filipina was stabbed when she and another woman fought four men, who were robbing and raping their compatriots in their rented villa in Hor Al Anz on Sunday morning.

Dubai police confirmed to Gulf News the attack occurred without going into details.

E.A., a 47-year-old cleaner from Mindanao in Southern Philippines, is receiving treatment at Rashid Hospital for her stab wounds, one of which penetrated her right lung.

A nurse at the surgical ward told Gulf News that E.A. was "not in a stable condition", although she was expected to pull through.

The other woman, J.A.R., was also injured in the attack, sustaining a bloody wound to her head.

J.A.R. said that four men entered her room, which she shared with E.A. and two others, through the roof at 12:30am and asked for all their money and valuables. She said the men, believed to be Arab nationals, were armed with a knife and steel rods.

"At first they asked us who our gawad [pimp] was. They thought we were prostitutes," said J.A.R., who works at a school.

"I told them, no, we're good ladies, just single working ladies," she added. The other three women work at a cleaning company.

She said she and E.A. fought back when the men allegedly raped one of their roommates and molested another. "E.A. and I got this idea, if we don't fight back, we'd all be raped and killed afterwards. So we fought back," J.A.R said.

She said she and E.A. grabbed the men's steel bars and started hitting them. The men retaliated, stabbing E.A. through the chest and neck, and hitting J.A.R on the head. J.A.R. was at a loss to understand why the men targeted them.

"We're poor people. We came here to work and to make money for our families. Why did they attack us? They're richer than us," she said.

The Philippine Consulate-General said they were doing everything to assist the women recover, including counselling if they requested it.

Occupants unmoved by women's plight

The four Filipina women said the other occupants of the villa where they stayed were indifferent to their plight as they refused to lend their mobiles to the women so they could call the police.

J.A.R. said some of the families living in the villa also did not open the door when they knocked. She added that five families lived in the villa.

"We had to go outside and ask our neighbour for help," she said.

At that time, E.A. was lying on the floor, bleeding from the stab wounds in her chest and neck. Another woman, identified as M.M., had been raped.