A senior journalist was assaulted and robbed at knife-point near the domestic airport in Mumbai on Sunday night while he was proceeding to the international airport to take a flight to Zimbabwe.

Ashish Shukla, Press Trust of India's cricket writer, was attacked by the driver and his associate at around 11.20 PM, when he was travelling in their taxi from domestic airport to international airport to catch a flight to Johannesburg en route to Harare for covering the India-Zimbabwe cricket series.

Soon after the taxi moved out of the domestic airport, the driver took his vehicle into a dingy lane where the two demanded that Shukla give away all the money he was carrying.

When he resisted, he was hit on the face repeatedly by the duo, Shukla said. One of the assailants then pulled out a knife and threatened him, forcing him to hand over 700 US dollars, he added.

The duo then dumped Shukla there and fled. Shukla said he was unable to lodge a complaint with police as no such facility was available at the international airport and he was in a hurry to catch the flight.