A group of Russian tourists was handed a raw deal when their trailer, laden with whitewater kayaks worth about R100,000, was stolen in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday.

Shane Raw, who was helping the group with information on where to kayak, told TimesLIVE on Wednesday the tourists had just finished kayaking on the Tsitsa river and had loaded their kayaks on to a trailer and travelled to a nearby parking area close to the BT Ngebs Mall.

"Their trailer was removed from their vehicle. It seems they were not aware that they were meant to padlock the trailer to their vehicle,” Raw added.

On Thursday, he clarified that the driver had not parked within the mall precinct.

“The vehicle was parked across the road close to one of the entrances of the mall. It was not parked in the mall’s parking," he said.

Raw said the stolen kayaks were extremely rare and were not sold in SA.