British Film Star: 'It was kill a tourist day in South Africa - and we were in the way'

I was shot at on New Years Eve. In Cape Town, South Africa. In a taxicab.

Not just me. My family were there too.

Victoria's Smurfit's taxi was shot at in Strand Street, Cape Town, by a gang. Police say the shooting was likely to have been part of an initiation ceremony.

Writing in today’s Irish Mail on Sunday, the 35-year-old actress says she was told by South African police the attack was likely to have been a gang initiation ceremony dubbed ‘Kill a Tourist Day’.

Victoria, who plays icy Roisin Connor in the ITV show, said memories of the attack have often left her tearful since returning home. Her mother, who was also in the taxi, had to be hospitalised for minor heart problems.

The shooting happened in Strand Street, one of Cape Town’s main roads, which will be thick with football fans when the World Cup begins in June.

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