British Tourists Robbed On Bus In St. Lucia After Getting off "Celebrity Cruise" Ship With Matt Damon And Ben Affleck Nearby

55 passengers were robbed by three masked gunmen in St. Lucia while they were on board a bus at the Botanical Gardens in Soufrière on Friday after hopping off their Celebrity Cruise ship.

Two crew members from the cruise vessel had also been on board the bus when it was robbed.

The Celebrity Eclipse had docked in Castries harbour on Friday for a 12 hour stay. The 121,000-ton cruise ship, which has 17 decks and can cater for 2,800 passengers, was on a 14 day Caribbean tour.  The vessel had left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 6 and its ports of calls include Barbados, Grenada and Aruba before returning to Florida on Saturday.

Tourism Minister Lorne Theophilus says this was an "unfortunate and a horrible scenario."

A statement from Celebrity Cruises said the guests had returned to the Eclipse unharmed after the attack. It said: "We are thankful that none of our guests was injured in this unfortunate event, and will continue to provide them with any support they may need."

However, an Eclipse passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic forum: "One woman fell and broke her leg; no one else was injured, all their money and jewelery were taken."

Another British cruise passenger wrote that in order to make an impact and improve its crime figures, island authorities would have to "wake up and crack down on crime".

St. Lucia Tourist Board Chairman Mathew Beaubrun has portrayed the robbery as a "rare incident."

Yet, Ann Prior, 59, and her husband Philip, 72, were shot during a botched street robbery in Bridgetown, Barbados, last month while on a stopover on a three-month P&O round-the-world cruise. 

And Dr. James Bridges, a leading expert on toxicology from Surrey, was injured along with his wife when they were stabbed while arriving at their holiday villa in Barbados in January.

Some 71,600 Britons visit St Lucia each year, and their visits are largely trouble-free. 

Detectives with the St Lucia police boarded the vessel to take statements from the passengers involved and two men have since been arrested in connection with the robbery.

A third person was being sought and sources said some of the jewellery stolen during the robbery had been recovered.

The robbery took place less than a mile from where St Lucia police had mounted a huge security operation to protect Hollywood star Matt Damon and a star studded guest list at an exclusive beach resort.

The actor and his wife Luciana were renewing their marriage vows at the Sugar Beach resort where they had booked all 78 rooms. Guests at the ceremony included Chelsea Cliton, Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck and his wife Jennifer Garner.