I was definitely naive, says Conor Maynard after gunpoint robbery in Brazil

Conor Maynard has said that naivety led him to being robbed at gunpoint in Brazil.

The pop star was attacked in Sao Paulo last month after he left a restaurant in an Uber taxi following a meal.

The 26-year-old – who released his debut album Contrast in 2012 – said on reflection he realised he had “definitely been naive” about the dangers of the South American city.

Speaking at the WE Day event in London, he said: “I was definitely quite naive. I was in Jamaica two weeks before and we had been warned that certain places were quite dangerous.

“It was almost like karma slapping us in the face two weeks later in Brazil. It’s definitely made me feel that I need to be more careful in these situations and not take things for granted.”

Maynard said it had been a “pretty intense” and “scary situation”, adding: “It was unfortunate but I’m looking forward to going back and that not happening again.”

At the time he shared details with fans via Instagram Story before announcing that he was cutting his trip short.

He said a man on a motorcycle had pulled up next to his car, banging on the window with a gun, pointing at his manager’s watch and shouting in Portuguese.

Speaking on the WE Day red carpet, Maynard said the incident had made him reconsider the issue of knife crime in the UK.

He said: “I personally have never been directly affected by it but things like that do make you think about it. It makes you realise anything could happen at any time.

“But if you spend every second thinking ‘I could die right now’, there’s going to be no enjoyment in your life. You definitely need to learn from it but not dwell on it forever.

“They’ve got a huge gun issue in America. That is something, fortunately, that we don’t have to live with. We don’t have to live in fear about that kind of thing.

“But holding knives is a similar kind of thing. If we are so proud of ‘Oh, we don’t have the gun problem’, then we need to also get rid of this problem.”