Kolkata, March 14 (IANS): Former national women's swimming champion Bula Choudhury's residence in West Bengal's Hooghly district was burgled on Saturday and many of her valuables, including commemorative plaques and medals, were stolen.

The Arjuna awardee who also has a house in the city, said her residence in Hindmotor was locked for some time and the burglars broke open and took away all her golden ornaments as well as plaques and medals.

"The burglars broke open all the cupboards and took away my jewelery. They also took away all the plaques and medals that I had won over the years," said Choudhury, the first woman to swim across seven seas in five continents.

"I keep shuttling between the two residences and the house at Hindmotor usually remains locked. It's fortunate that nobody was in the house at the time, who knows the robbers could have attacked us," said Choudhury who has filed a police complaint.

Choudhury swam across the English Channel in 1989 and repeated the feat in 1999 to become the first Asian woman to swim the channel twice.