Sydney  - A German on holiday in Australia had her black belt in karate to thank for thwarting an attempted robbery on the mean streets of the central Outback city of Alice Springs, Northern Territory police said Monday.

Would-be muggers who set upon the woman and her friends Saturday night as they were crossing a Todd River footbridge were given a master class in martial arts.

"The victim managed to punch one of the offenders three times in the face with a karate chop," Superintendent Sean Parnell told national broadcaster ABC. "And they then attempted to run away, and these baddies chased them, and she's swung around and given them a kick to the side of the head and a couple more karate chops and they've run away."

There have been three assaults in four days in Alice Springs, which is midway between Darwin in the north and Adelaide in the south and the biggest stop on the Ghan luxury rails service between those cities.

On Thursday night, two German tourists, aged 19 and 29, were bashed after being stopped outside their backpacker hostel by men demanding cigarettes.

On Sunday night a 71-year-old Frenchwoman received cuts and bruises when she was thrown to the ground by a bag snatcher.

Alice Springs is popular with tourists visiting the Uluru rock formation and other attractions in central Australia.

Violent crime is so prevalent, much of it perpetrated by alcohol-fuelled Aborigines, that guidebooks advise tourists not to venture out after dark.

Around 2,000 Aborigines live in shanties, most of them without jobs, living on welfare and cut off from their traditional culture. (dpa)