Police in the Bahamas have questioned the pop star Robbie Williams over an armed robbery against two paparazzi who had snapped him on a beach the previous day.

The photographers, Matt Sanchez of Splash News & Picture Agency and Carlos Mendez, an American freelance - said that four armed men broke into their rented room in the early hours of Sunday.

They were alleged to have held a gun to Mr Sanchez's head and threatened to kill both men before leaving with $20,000 worth of cash, cameras and other equipment.

The photographers told police that only a few hours before, they had got into a row with Mr Williams's entourage after using zoom lenses to snap shots of the singer on an exclusive beach in Exuma, where he has rented an ocean-front mansion. The photographs showed Mr Williams smoking a large hand-rolled cigarette.

Superintendent Ellsworth Moss, who heads the detective unit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, said last night that investigators had questioned Mr Williams about the robbery of the two photographers, who had travelled to the island of Staniel Cay to sneak photos of the vacationing singer.

He stressed that Mr Williams, 35, was not a suspect but said that detectives wanted to see if there was a link with the earlier incident. “We don’t think he was the one who actually committed the robbery, but it may have been a spin-off or may have been triggered by what reportedly happened with his party on the beach,” he said.

Raymond Gibson, Assistant Commissioner of Police, said that two men were in custody in connection with the case, although he would not give any further details.

The Sun newspaper reported that one of the robbers cut himself as he broke into the photographers' villa through a broken window and left blood on a bedsheet. It said that a small handgun was recovered outside the building.

Mr Sanchez told the newspaper: "We were in fear for our lives. Carlos had a gun put to his head the entire time and we were threatened if we tried to look up from the floor.

"It was a nightmare. We could have been shot dead."

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