Brits travelling on a river boat are being held hostage along with around 70 tourists by a tribe in Peru's Amazon rainforest, local media have reported.
Indigenous people from Cuninico in the Loreto province, Peru's northernmost region, are trying to get attention from the state after constant oil spills in the Cuninico River.
"[We want] to call the government's attention with this action, there are foreigners and Peruvians, there are about 70 people," Watson Trujillo, the leader of the Cuninico community, told Radio Programas del Perú (RPP Radio).
The detained tourists include citizens from the United States, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and include women and children.
Community members told local media that they would hold the tourists for between 6 to 8 days until a solution is reached over the spill of 2,500 tons of crude oil.
Trujillo said his group had taken the "radical measure" in an effort to put pressure on the government to send a delegation to assess the environmental damage.
Indigenous communities had already been blocking the transit of all vessels on the river in protest against the spill, which was caused by a rupture in the Norperuano oil pipeline.
RRP Radio reports that there is a one-month-old child, people with disabilities, pregnant women and elderly people all being held.
Around 2,500 Indigenous people live in the area affected by the oil disaster, with the government declaring a state of national emergency over the incident on September 27.
The protesters claim two children and a woman have been killed in the area due to oil spills.
Ángela Ramírez, one of the detainees, wrote in a post on Instagram: “Help us spread the word. We are in Cuninico. We are hostages of the indigenous community. There was an oil spill that caused two deaths.
“They have been very nice and respectful with us, but this is the only way for them to get the attention of the Government. The faster they get to be heard, the faster they will let us go.
“We are here from 10am. We spent the night on the boat. There’s not enough water to drink. The sun is out. There are babies, pregnant women and elderly people. And there’s no more electricity to charge our phones.”
An FCDO spokesperson said: “We are in contact with the local authorities and a very small number of British nationals involved in an incident in Peru.”
