SAO PAULO, Oct 21: Four members of the Toyota Formula One motor racing team escaped unhurt here Friday night when their car was held up by armed gunmen and shots were fired.

The two men and two women were driving back into the city from the Interlagos circuit where they were working in preparation for Sunday's season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix.

Their car was one of around a dozen that was stopped as a gang of armed robbers demanded cash, jewellery and other valuables in what in Brazil is known as 'trawling', a mass armed robbery.

“I heard at least five shots were fired and we drove away, but it was very scary,” said Brazilian Fernanda de Mello Villa-Boas, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.

A gang of youths, one brandishing a gun, had tried to kick in the passenger window of their car when it stopped at traffic lights in heavy traffic about three kilometres from the circuit.

Villa-Boas de Mello said this kind of hold-up was common in Sao Paulo, a sprawling city with one of the highest crime rates in Latin America.

She said the gunmen were unable to see or know that they were associated with the Formula One Grand Prix because the car doors were locked and all of the tinted windows were closed.—AFP