A SUFFOLK couple are understood to have been gunned down by a mugger in Barbados.

The 59-year-old woman and her husband, 72, were shot and robbed as they returned to their cruise ship after a stopover on the Caribbean island.

The couple, named locally last night as Philip and Ann Prior, from Bedfield, near Framlingham, had been on a three-month P&O cruise. Mr Prior was shot in the side of the pelvis during the attack near the harbour in the capital, Bridgetown, on Sunday afternoon.

Passers-by tended their wounds, using towels as bandages, until an ambulance arrived to take them to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for emergency treatment.

The Daily Mail reported Mr and Mrs Prior were said last night to be in a ‘comfortable’ condition in hospital.

The Royal Barbados Police Force said that the attacker stole Mrs Prior’s handbag and fled.

“It appears the incident was a robbery,” said a police spokesman. “They are currently receiving medical attention but are not in a life-threatening condition.

“They are talking to our detectives to assist with the investigation. We believe the couple were on the way back to their cruise ship.”

Mr and Mrs Prior were on an 85-day South American Odyssey cruise on the P&O ship Adonia.

It was during a stopover in Bridgetown that they were shot and robbed in Hincks Street shortly after 2pm on Sunday.

The Adonia, one of P&O’s smaller vessels with space for 710 passengers, has left Barbados and was last night in St Lucia.

It is not the first time a Suffolk couple have been shot on the island.

In June 2009 barrister Andrew Thompson and his wife Isobel were walking home from an evenign meal when two men demanded they hand over money.

Within seconds – and before Mr Thompson could react – one of the men shot him through the leg, while the other snatched his wife’s handbag.

The bullet ripped through his lower leg leaving a gaping exit wound ‘about the size of a 10p piece’ and severely damaging his muscle.

The couple, who live in a village outside Bury St Edmunds, were less than a mile from their hotel, the 5* exclusive golf and spa resort Sandy Lane.