Jakarta – Four thieves attacked and stabbed the Australian-born wife of East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao on Tuesday in the latest in a string of violent robberies in the impoverished territory, an official said.

Ines Almeida, spokeswoman for the National Council for East Timorese Resistance (CNRT), said Kirsty Sword-Gusmao was assaulted at a beach near the capital Dili where she was with her mother and baby son.

Sword-Gusmao was resting at home on Tuesday night after earlier requiring treatment in hospital, Almeida said.

"They were going back to their car ... and one of the four men approached and took the keys off her," Almeida said by telephone from Dili after visiting Sword-Gusmao.

"She fought back and they punched her twice in the face and then one of them grabbed a screwdriver and stabbed her in the leg ... She is shocked." Almeida said the thieves took Sword-Gusmao's bag and mobile phone. "They even took the baby's bag," Almeida said. International aid workers later found the victims. Her mother and baby boy were not hurt.

Crime in East Timor has been rising, reflecting growing discontent with conditions in the UN-administered territory that voted to break from Indonesian rule in 1999.

"This is not the first time that it has happened. It happened two days ago when an Australian woman was stabbed," Almeida said. That woman was in a military hospital after a group of robbers attacked her two nights ago and stabbed her in the chest. Last week another woman was also robbed in Dili.