Is increased violence damaging NZ's image abroad?

Mathieu Bastareaud's injuries - including a suspected broken eye socket - have ruled him out of the rest of the French tour. Photo / Getty Images

Just days after hitting Kiwi soil, Frenchman Anthony Cressend was attacked by strangers at a Northland campsite - left battered and bleeding on the ground with a thrice-broken jaw and kicked-in teeth.

 

Police told him they would not investigate without a Kiwi contact number.

"As soon as I said that [he did not have a New Zealand cellphone] the [officer] flipped over his book and said 'Well we can't call outside of New Zealand cell zone'," said travel companion Emily Holloway, 24.

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