Brit tourist's first emotional words as hero saves her from homelessness in Peru
Hannah Almond was found sleeping rough on the streets of Cusco, Peru, where she had been backpacking in an attempt to "find herself" - and vanished from friends
A Brit tourist who disappeared in Peru and was attacked while she slept rough told her friend "I love you" amid an emotional reunion.
Hannah Almond, 32, wrapped her arms around her pal "Matti" and uttered the heartwarming words when he discovered her sleeping rough on the streets of Cusco in the South American nation. Piero Villanueva, a Good Samaritan in the city, helped Matti locate the woman.
Hannah had been homeless for weeks with no money and passport after she became separated from friends with whom she had gone backpacking, it is thought. During this awful period, the fashion graduate was violently attacked and thugs burned her possessions.
She was delighted to see her pal - who wants only to be referred to as Matti - after he flew out on a desperate mission to rescue Hannah, from Grimsby, Lincolnshire. The mate said: "I came straight off the flight, and before I got to my accommodation I got the taxi to drop me off at the main square where she was with her friend.
"She wrapped her arms around me and said 'I love you'. She was wearing superman pajamas given to her by a friend as she has nothing to her name. Minimal clothing, no money, and no personal items like a phone or passport."
Hannah was only left with the clothes she was wearing following the fire. Matti helped reunite Hannah with some of her friends with whom she had originally gone travelling, including Mila. Mila and Hannah danced down a city street, Matti continued.
Matti and Hannah met when they studied together Leeds Beckett University, it is understood. He told Mail Online: "I think she was overwhelmed when I saw her if I'm honest. After some time she has expressed love and gratitude for me being here. We sat and had a bottle of water and talked about home. She didn't want to eat anything at the time. We have listened to some music that reminded us of friends and times back in Leeds."
Hannah has reportedly called family back home in Grimsby and Matti is ensuring his pal gets the right help she needs. The graduate had gone to Peru in March "hoping for adventure" and to "find herself" at a yoga retreat.
She was robbed and assaulted, losing her passport, phone and all of her money, a GoFundMe page revealed. More than £7,500 has been raised - including donations from strangers - and this money will be used to help pay for emergency care, food and any further flights Hannah's friends and family require.
The current Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) travel advice warns a number of Brit tourists have been targeted by armed robbers in recent years. It adds: "Personal attacks, including sexual assaults, are infrequent but do happen, mostly in the Cusco and Arequipa areas."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Bombshell new Madeleine McCann theory: 6 claims about mystery Brit man and wife
A fresh search for missing Madeleine McCann ended this week with no new information seemingly found - however today a new bombshell theory about her disappearance emerged A new bombshell theory about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has emerged. It comes following a fresh search for the toddler from Leicestershire, who shockingly vanished in 2007 while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal. This week German and Portuguese police descended on an area of southern Portugal close to Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished. The last time authorities conducted a search related to Madeleine's disappearance around this area was in 2023. But after three days searching the area this week, detectives were pictured packing up their equipment following an operation thought to have cost around £300,000. READ MORE: Madeleine McCann UPDATES: Bombshell new theory over disappearance of toddler Today however, a shocking new theory about Madeleine's disappearance emerged. Portuguese daily Correio da Manha reported German prosecutors refused to probe a couple suspected of running over Madeleine McCann in a drink-drive accident. The newspaper said Portuguese authorities demanded an investigation into a British man and his German wife after his UK-based sister tipped off cops. Here are all the new claims... Alleged drink-drive incident German prosecutors reportedly refused to probe the couple suspected of running over Madeleine McCann in a drink-drive accident. German authorities are said to have rejected a Portuguese request to use an undercover police officer with a fake identity to try to befriend the female suspect and firm up their suspicions she was driving a car that hit Madeleine while under the influence of alcohol. Brit 'tipped off cops in 2018' The Portuguese newspaper reported that the sister of the unnamed British man at the centre of the new theory tipped off police in 2018. The report stated: 'German prosecutors were asked to authorise a covert police operation with someone posing as a friend of the woman's and trying to get her to confess, but the courts refused. 'It was decided to continue solely with the investigation into suspect Christian Brueckner, rejecting other possibilities.' 'Alcoholic' couple The report described the mystery couple as 'alcoholics' and placed the British man's wife in a café near the Ocean Club where she had supposedly been 'drinking' the night Madeleine went missing from the Algarve resort. Correio da Manha also reported another witness described as the couple's neighbour told police separately she heard them rowing the day after the three-year-old disappeared. She said she heard the man yelling: 'Why did you bring her?' Brit man dead Correio da Manha said the unnamed British man had now died. It did not say whether his German wife was still alive. In the front page report today, the newspaper claimed: "The German police refused to co-operate with Portugal's Policia Judiciaria in the investigation of a clue that pointed towards Madeleine McCann being run over. "In 2018 a British woman went to police in the UK to say she suspected her brother had been involved in the disappearance of the youngster. She said her brother was an alcoholic and since the day Madeleine vanished had appeared to hide a painful secret." Portuguese police 'thought driver might have panicked' Portuguese police thought the woman allegedly behind the wheel of the car driver might have "panicked" The newspaper report went on: "The neighbour discovered afterwards it was the man whose sister had reported him to police and was married to the woman who had been drinking in a cafe next to the Ocean Club where little Madeleine was staying with her parents and twin siblings. "Another report the police had indicated that in an identical car to the one the woman was then using, around the time of Madeleine's disappearance, a female and little girl had been seen inside. The PJ concluded she could have run Madeleine over and panicked." Brit 'refused to tell sister' The newspaper claimed the mystery British man had always 'refused to tell his sister if he had been involved in Madeleine's death' before she alerted authorities. Portuguese police are yet to respond to the Correio da Manha newspaper report.
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'Land-grabbing' travellers were 'lucky not to have caused a train crash' after using huge diggers to build an 'illegal' camp feet away from a major high-speed railway line, expert says
'Land-grabbing' travellers were lucky not to have caused a catastrophic train crash after using huge diggers to build an 'illegal' camp feet away from a major high-speed railway line, an expert has warned. Villagers living in the sleepy community of Balderton were left horrified by the development of an unauthorised site right next to one the area's busiest rail routes. Builders arrived in force during the VE Day bank holiday weekend last month to convert a field off Bullpit Road, in Nottinghamshire, into the new camp. Excavators, diggers and large trucks were seen on the grassy plot, which was flattened and gravelled over in less than 72 hours - all without planning permission. One ex-soldier, who spent 22 years in the Royal Engineers before moving into health and safety and construction, said the works risked triggering a catastrophic rail crash. The Gulf War veteran, who lives locally, also chillingly claimed it was a miracle excavators did not damage the railway line or accidentally strike high-speed trains, which can race just feet from the new camp at a blistering 125mph. 'It brought a chill to my spine,' the retired Warrant Officer 1 told MailOnline. 'It's a busy line. The trains won't be able to stop, whizzing past the crossing at 125mph. 'It doesn't bear thinking about if you made a mistake. All it would have taken would have been for an excavator to have over-reached and hit a train passing. Then you would have had something really serious on your hands.' The retired Royal Engineer - who was previously an instructor at the regiment's prestigious engineering school in Chatham, Kent - added: 'We would have had to jump through hoops for months with Network Rail to do what they did that close to the northern main line.' An enforcement notice was later served by Newark and Sherwood District Council on May 8 - days after the works began - ordering the unauthorised construction to stop. A retrospective planning application for ten individual pitches, each with a static caravan and touring caravan, and ancillary hardstanding, has since been submitted by the landowner. However, locals fear the new site will prompt house prices in the area to 'plummet'. And concerns have also been raised about the risk posed by the camp's access, which is next to a busy level crossing. Neighbours fear travellers turning into it could block the road, leaving drivers stranded on the tracks as the barriers come down. One local, who asked not to be named, told MailOnline they were shocked when the unauthorised encampment appeared. 'We felt sick. Your stomach drops out,' they said. 'We thought this was our forever home. We love the neighbours then suddenly they turn up and build a traveller camp right on our doorstep. It's going to reduce the value of properties around here.' The retired soldier - who during the first Gulf War in 1990 helped build runways for military jets in the Middle East - added he was stunned by the speed of the work at the field. 'I know how to move a lot of stone with a lot of tippers, bulldozers and excavators quickly. So, to do all this in 72 hours takes a huge amount of planning. It was literally like a military operation,' the engineer said. The development in Balderton is not the only one to have sprung up around the area in the past few weeks. A similar development took place north of the community, between the nearby villages of Weston and Egmanton. A huge 40-pitch caravan site was built over the Easter bank holiday in April without planning permission. The site, based on a field off the A1, was completed in a matter of days, with tarmac roads and fences. As well as roads built on the camp, locals said they had also seen septic tanks sunk, electricity and water illegitimately connected, and key drainage dykes filled to create the site access. Both the plots in Balderton and Weston appear to be latest in a trend exposed by MailOnline which has seen fields unlawfully developed into traveller sites. Groups across the UK have been accused of carrying out brazen bank holiday 'landgrabs' to rapidly build camps under the noses of council chiefs while their offices are closed. Allegedly weaponising the national breaks, industrial diggers, excavators and lorries carrying gravel, are mobilised to rip up and pave over fields in protected green belts during 'deliberate and meticulously planned' operations. Cynically, the 'illegal' conversions are done without any planning permission, flouting development rules - with 'retrospective' applications later submitted to councils to allow the newly-constructed sites to remain. Since April, locations across the country have seen a sudden surge of developments - with the bulk taking place on the Easter, VE Day and late May bank holidays. An investigation by MailOnline has revealed similar unauthorised 'landgrabs' blighting villages and towns across Buckinghamshire, West Sussex, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Gloucester, Worcestershire and Cheshire. During a fiery village meeting about the new site in Weston, furious residents feared the area would not be able to cope with the sudden surge of travellers. 'There's 40 caravans, so maybe 160 people - we don't have a shop, we don't have buses, the school can't take them,' one person said at the recent public meeting, as reported by the Newark Advertiser. 'What are they going to do? It'll increase stress on services, and they'll be bored and get into anti-social behaviour and it will increase stress on the police. 'There's been noise and light pollution all night, and intimidation. When I first came here I never felt so safe — I daren't leave my house because of this. I can't take it.' There is a large gypsy and traveller community around Newark area, with sites dotted across the district. However, the Labour-run authority overseeing the district is facing an accommodation crisis for its nomadic residents, with a recent assessment saying at least 169 new pitches need to be made by 2034 to house travellers. In a statement about the development in Bullpit Road, a council spokesman said: 'Newark and Sherwood District Council has been working diligently to find a solution to address the unauthorised development on Bullpit Road, Balderton. 'It is extremely disappointing that the occupants chose to ignore the requirement to secure planning permission and undertook construction works without permission and during the night. 'In an ideal world, the council would have the powers to step in straight away, stop the works, and clear the site. Sometimes we can do this, for example, if something is likely to be a danger to the public or create irreversible damage to a heritage building. 'But in regards to Bullpit Road, this isn't the case, and so we have to find another way to address the unauthorised development.' Network Rail confirmed it was not consulted prior to the work at the camp taking place, with the authority receiving its first notice on May 28 via the council.
Daily Mirror
13 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Brit, 73, strangled to death abroad with own belt in horror mobile phone robbery
Retired Brit Karl Lauks, 73, was brutally killed on his driveway when he was strangled with his own belt after coming home from the pub, in South Africa - police said a 29-year-old has been arrested A retired British engineer who moved to South Africa was horrifically strangled to death using his own belt in a tragic ambush. Karl Lauks, 73, had returned home after a trip to his local pub but a waiting killer attacked him in his own driveway, in the town of Tulbagh, 70 miles north of Cape Town. The Brit - who went to South Africa over 20 years ago for work and fell in love with the place so never returned to live in the UK - was ambushed just after he parked his Smart car at home, on Sunday evening. He was beaten before he could step away from the wheel of his car and the attacker took Karl's leather belt off him. The killer is believed to have used the Brit's scarf to silence him by shoving it into his mouth during the brutal attack. This cold-blooded criminal reportedly then took Karl's belt and wrapped it around his neck, suffocating him to death. The attacker then took the retired engineer's phone, the belt, his wallet and house keys before dashing away from the driveway and leaving the 73-year-old dead in the car. A spokesperson for Western Cape Police revealed a 29-year-old has been arrest on suspicion of murder in the shocking case and that they appeared at a local magistrates court. This had also shockingly been the fourth time in six months that the Brit's phone had been stolen. Karl, from Bradford, was only found after a neighbour noticed the gate to his house and car door were unusually left open, on Monday. Described as the "life and soul" of his adoptive town, his cousin Tessa Muller said his tragic death was "truly horrible". Tessa, a chef at the Tulbagh Hotel, was called and asked to check on the Brit, on Monday. She told the local outlet Netwerk24: "When I got there and saw the security gate and his car door open I knew that was not like him and feared the worst as I walked up and looked inside. "I knew he was dead right then and there when I saw the scarf in his mouth and his eyes wide open and I knew I must not touch anything and I called the police. Karl was loved and probably one of the best know person in Tulbagh and would always be out and about having breakfast with us then his lunch at Herholdt's Pub. "There was not a single day he ever stayed in and he was the life and soul of everywhere he went but as he got older the locals watched over him the best they could. For this very gentle man to meet his end like this is just truly horrible." A close friend and fellow drinker at the local pub said: "Karl lit his place up and a number of other bars in Tulbagh and now his regular seat is sitting there empty." The friend added that Karl has been badly beaten up in another robbery last year, leading him to get a pit bull for protection. He added: "He got a pit bull to protect himself at night but kept it indoors to stop him barking and I guess the robber knew that and attacked Karl before he could get in the front door. Everyone here looked out for him and watched him home if they could to get him in safely but that could not happen 24/7 and on Sunday his killer I guess was just waiting." Karl's friend revealed the Brit's wife had died following a battle with cancer 15 years ago and he had lived alone ever since.
