Harare, May 16 (IANS): Zimbabwe batsman Brendan Taylor's wife was mugged outside their home this week, the cricketer has revealed.

Taylor took to Twitter on Wednesday to report about the incident: "Just had an alarming situation outside my house. I was waiting for my wife's return in my driveway. I started hearing her screaming about 100m from my gate, she was getting mugged by four armed men. I ran outside and they sped away in red Honda Fit."

ESPNcricinfo quoted local media as saying that there has been an increase in crime in the country since the intensification of load-shedding in Harare this week, with criminals taking advantage of the power failures in the capital city's suburbs.

"Fortunately she only lost her handbag and it could (have) been a lot worse," Taylor said in another tweet. He also urged residents to remain on guard against criminal activities in Zimbabwe.

"People are getting desperate, be vigilant when entering your property and try keep off the roads after dark. With all this load shedding we're easy targets."

The right-handed batsman has played 188 ODIs and 28 Tests for Zimbabwe till now, in which he has scored 6,156 and 1,840 runs respectively.