A FORMER Guernsey resident with strong connections to the island has survived an attempted assassination.

Maria van Beek, 36 (pictured), whose brother-in-law is local basketball star Paul van Beek, was shot in the chest as she drove to work in Guyana.

Mrs van Beek, who is the South American country’s insurance commissioner, was stuck in traffic during a heavy downpour when the gunman walked up to her vehicle and fired a single shot through the driver’s-side window last Thursday.

Reports said he jumped on a motorcycle parked nearby and fled.

Mrs van Beek, who met her husband, Patrick, while working at Generali in Guernsey during the late 1990s, was taken to hospital and underwent successful surgery to remove the bullet that was lodged in her chest.

She has developed a high profile in Guyana recently after she was put in charge of dissolving the failed Colonial Life Insurance Co.

The company has 15,000 clients in the country and reports suggested that the shooting might have been linked to her work. It occurred just two days after she presented her findings on Clico’s financial standing to the High Court.