VOI, Kenya, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A renowned Scottish gem expert has been slain in Kenya by a mob in an apparent mining dispute, authorities said.
Campbell Bridges, 71, his son Bruce and four Kenyan employees were set upon by as many as 30 men near the town of Voi, southern Kenya, close to Tsavo National Park, The Times of London reported Thursday.
The attackers were armed with knives, clubs, spears and bows and arrows, police said.
"It was an ambush," a shaken Bruce Bridges, 30, told The Times. He said his men "were cut to ribbons" and he was stabbed in the neck.
Police believe that the attack was prompted by a dispute over mining rights. Bridges said that miners had been illegally digging for gems on the family's property. The family had been in dispute with unlicensed miners for three years and had received numerous death threats.
Campbell Bridges made his name as a gemologist with his discovery in the 1960s of tsavorite, a bright green gemstone found along the Kenya-Tanzania border. He also was involved in the discovery of a local blue gemstone known as tanzanite, one of the world's rarest gems, found only in Tanzania.
