SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Three American tourists were stabbed in Puerto Rico early Monday after police said someone told them to stop filming at a renowned beach community known as La Perla, popular with visitors.
The confrontation began when one of the tourists, who lives in South Carolina, began filming a moving hamburger cart and was asked to stop and leave the area, police said.
Two of the tourists remain hospitalized, including one who was stabbed six times, police said.
No one has been arrested.
The attack came nearly two years after a Delaware tourist was killed and set on fire after police said he was warned not to take photos while buying drugs in La Pearl. A friend of his was also beaten but survived.
La Perla is located in the historic part of Puerto Rico’s capital known as Old San Juan and rose to fame after being featured in the video for “Despacito”, a song released in 2017 by Puerto Rican singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.
The community was once a dangerous slum considered the island’s biggest heroin distribution point, but crime has plummeted since a 2011 raid by federal agents.
