Four tourists died, including three Colombians, and 16 others were injured when a minibus fell to an abyss in a route of Peruafter visiting the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, the authorities reported on Monday.
(Read here: The institutional crisis that has Peru on the ropes)
The wounded are four French, two Greeks, two Israelis, two Canadians, two Argentines, two Peruvians, one Dutch and one Spanish, according to the official balance released in Cusco, where the famous stone citadel is located.
(Also See: Go Live Trapped in His Car After Being Hit by a Mule)
“We have four dead tourists […]after the fall of a truck [minibús] to an abyss a little over 100 meters“, said the Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur), Roberto Sánchez, at a press conference in Cusco together with regional officials.
The Ministry specified in a statement that the deceased are “three of Colombian nationality and one of Peruvian nationality”.
Preliminarily, Sánchez had mentioned two Colombians among the deceased, since until that moment the nationality of the other two had not been confirmed.
(Also read: Two young Colombians were killed on a road in Peru)
“The search for the bodies and belongings has been a disaster because going down to the area has been complicated,” said the head of the Police Division of the Convention, William Falcón.
The 16 injured were transferred to two hospitals in Cuscoincluding the Peruvian driver of the minibus, authorities said.
“I have arranged for the Mincetur and the Foreign Ministry to grant all the facilities to the wounded, so that they can communicate with their families and respective embassies, in addition to the repatriation of the bodies of the victimsPresident Pedro Castillo said on Twitter.
The road accident occurred on Sunday night in the Abra Málaga area, about 105 km from the city of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca empire. “The place of the accident was foggy. We regret this tragic event,” said Sánchez.
The white vehicle fell into the abyss after tourists visited Machu Picchu on Sunday, he added. A plane from the Peruvian Air Force landed at the Cusco airport around 1 pm (local time) to transfer some of the wounded to Lima, according to local media.
(Also: Cucuteña’s love picnic and her husband in Germany ended in tragedy)
“We express our condolences to the relatives and governments of the unfortunately deceased foreign tourists,” the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said on Twitter. Accidents on Peruvian highways are frequent due to speeding, the poor condition of the routes, the lack of signage and the lack of control by the authorities.
On July 31, the fall of a truck into a 200-meter abyss left 16 dead, including children, on a remote rural road in the central region of Junín.. About 5,000
National and foreign tourists visit Machu Picchu daily, built in the fifteenth century by the Inca emperor Pachacútec and considered the jewel of Peruvian tourism.
You may also be interested in:
– Atrocious crime in the US: Colombian would have stabbed his mother to death
– Together with Colombians murdered in Mexico, they found another body
– Family cries out for bringing bodies of 3 caleños injured in Mexico
AFP
#Peru #Colombian #tourists #die #accident #visiting #Machu #Picchu