A BBC correspondent ordered by the government to leave Zimbabwe within 24 hours has been forced to take refuge at the British High Commission in Harare this morning after a gang tried to break into his flat.
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Joseph Winter said the men climbed a wall around his garden and began banging on doors and shouting for him to open up as a car waited outside with its engine running.
Winter phoned his lawyer, British officials and fellow journalists in Harare. A Reutersreporter and other journalists arrived at the scene and saw a half-dozen men in civilian clothes flee from Mr Winter's garden, climb into a Mazda car and drive away.
"We were terrified, and we thought they were going to kill us. We don't know who these people were," said Mr Winter, who was with his wife and small daughter in the flat at the time of the incident. The family were taken away in a car by officials from the British High Commission soon after.
Ms Beatrice Mtetwa, Mr Winter's lawyer, said she would launch a court challenge against the expulsion order this morning.
Information Minister Mr Jonathan Moyo told state television on Saturday that Mr Winter had been ordered out because his work permit was invalid.
"We are expelling him because his work permit is invalid because it was issued irregularly and fraudulently by an officer with no authority," Mr Moyo said.
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President Robert Mugabe
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Mr Winter, who has worked in Zimbabwe for four years and was the only BBC correspondent in Harare on Saturday, called that charge "absolute rubbish".
Relations between Zimbabwe and Britain have been poor for the last year, with the government of the former British colony angrily rejecting criticism of the rule of President Robert Mugabe. Mr Mugabe's government has regularly accused the BBC and other foreign news organisations of bias against it.
Uruguayan MS Mercedes Sayagues - the Zimbabwe correspondent for the South African-based Mail & Guardiannewspaper - was also ordered to leave Zimbabwe yesterday.
She was allowed to fly back into the country from Johannesburg only to pick up her nine-year-old daughter, but said she too would challenge the expulsion.
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists strongly condemned the expulsions. "What the government has done is to confirm the widely-held view that Zimbabwe is now being run by a bunch of tyrants determined to destroy any free voice," said ZUJ secretary Mr Basildon Peta.
President Mugabe (77) next Wednesday has held power for nearly 21 years but is fighting for his political life against an opposition strengthened by worsening economic troubles.
Reuters