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A woman guest approached the front desk of a five-star resort, laid a loaded pistol on the counter and said: “There was a gunman in my room. He raped and robbed me and my friend. And I took his gun and I shot him.”

Two women friends from the United States were taking it easy on the final night of their overseas holiday when it seems a gunman somehow scaled the hotel wall, jumped onto the balcony of their second-storey suite and burst into their room intent on robbery or worse.

The scene was the Hotel Riu Reggae, an all-inclusive, adults-only hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Authorities say the intruder, armed with a Glock 17 semiautomatic pistol, assaulted and raped both women during the 15 minutes he was in the room – but the situation changed dramatically when one of the victims managed to grab the man’s gun.

She shot the attacker twice before he jumped off the balcony and fled bleeding.

The woman then walked half-naked to reception, placed the gun on the counter and told shocked staff what had happened. They phoned police immediately.

An arrest came quickly after a man arrived at a Jamaican hospital with gunshot wounds, the Detroit Free Press reported. (Both women were from Detroit, Michigan.)

“Based on our initial investigations, the gunman was employed to the hotel two days ago as an entertainment coordinator, so it was not someone who walked in off the street,” a police officer told Jamaica’s daily newspaper The Gleaner.

Glock 17 pistol

“The gun he had in his possession was stolen from the room of another guest, who is a licensed firearm holder.”

Police say the gun was loaded with 16 rounds. Austrian gunmaker Glock describes the weapon as “safe, easy, and quick – precisely what you need in critical situations”.

According to police quoted by The Gleaner, the suspect, brandishing the gun, first demanded money. He then forced the two women to perform sexual acts on him and raped them. While the assailant was raping one woman, the gun reportedly fell from his hand and the other woman managed to grab it and shoot him.

Montego Bay police say the wounded male suspect is a 24-year-old hotel employee who had worked as a dancer for an entertainment company that performed at the hotel.

Lee Bailey, chairman of a police civic committee in St James, Jamaica, says he is concerned that the hotel may not have properly screened the employee suspected.

The Detroit Free Press said the victim who fired the shots is a medical lab operator and mother of a three-year-old girl. She flew to the beachfront hotel in Jamaica with her friend to celebrate her 33rd birthday. The getaway – an all-inclusive, five-night holiday – had been planned for months.

One of the women criticised the hotel’s initial attitude, though she said hotel officials had later apologised and offered to refund the cost of the trip.

The Gleaner added that about six hours after the incident, “another Montego Bay hotel was also dragged into the news” when police raided Hotel Gloriana on Sunset Boulevard in the same district, arrested five men and seized two illegal firearms. The men were wanted in connection with a recent local shooting, the paper reported.

Written by Peter Needham