Haitians Attack US Motorcycle Missionaries

Group has narrow escape from angry mob
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 18, 2010 1:41 AM CST
Haitians Attack US Motorcycle Missionaries
UN peacekeepers from Brazil patrol at a earthquake survivors refugee camp in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.   (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Missionaries from the Christian Motorcyclists Association went to Haiti to distribute motorbikes to pastors but found themselves in what could have been a scene from Mad Max as they tried to flee a city torn by riots. The 11 missionaries, after days holed up in a hotel in Cap-Haitien as riots over the cholera epidemic raged, tried to flee the city in a bus but were attacked by protesters—some on motorbikes—who blocked the road with torched cars.

Protesters hurled rocks at the bus and smashed the windshield as the driver tried to get away. "Our driver, he was like a NASCAR driver," one of the missionaries tells CNN. The driver managed to maneuver the badly damaged bus onto a sidewalk. The vehicle died right outside a UN compound, where Chilean troops ushered the missionaries to safety and where they are now waiting until it's safe to leave the city. "I feel like God protected us," the missionary says.
(More Haiti stories.)

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