CARACAS, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Walter Rehbenger, a consul in Austria's embassy in Caracas, was wounded by a gunshot during a struggle with four thieves in the Austrian embassy compound, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the nation's Union Radio said.

    Rehnbenger was taken to San Roman Urological medical center in eastern Caracas after the attack.

    Douglas Rico, head of the anti-robbery squad of Caracas's forensic police, the CICPC, said his staff had already begun investigations seeking the robbers, but they needed to interview Rehbenger, because witnesses had given contradictory accounts of the crime.

    "We have the visible evidence (including) a shell from the weapon which presumably was used to wound him," Rico said. A forensic team had also taken prints from the scene which could be used to identify the attackers.

    He said that the thieves had been waiting for Rehnbenger when he came to work and that the consul had been shot in a fight with the thieves, when they tried to force him to open a safe.

    Rico added that it was not yet clear if the attackers had held the ambassador hostage for a time. Enditem