Latest news with #CanopyToursIquitos
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Armed assailants rob tourists, drain bank accounts on Peruvian Amazon boat trip
Armed men hijacked a tourist boat in the Amazon rainforest in Peru, robbed all 14 people on board and forced them to empty their bank accounts via mobile apps, according to one of the victims. Spanish TikToker Elisabet de la Almudena, who has more than 235,000 followers on the platform, described the ordeal as the 'worst day of her life' in a 4.5-minute video uploaded Tuesday. According to her account, she was part of a 14-person group, including her parents and 6-year-old daughter, that set off on an all-day boat tour from the city of Iquitos, a popular jumping-off point to explore the rainforest. 'We contracted a family tour, a sightseeing tour, and we ended up being kidnapped,' she said. Four men armed with pistols and a machine gun boarded the boat and sailed it deep into the forest, said de la Almudena, where they took everyone's belongings and even the vessel's motor. 'Through mobile phone applications, they asked us to take the money out of our accounts and transfer it to one of their accounts, otherwise they would not leave,' she added. 'I wouldn't wish it upon anyone,' de la Almudena said. The passengers then took pieces of wood from the boat and used them to row down the river, where they came upon a family in another boat that towed them to safety, she said. De la Almudena claimed that the tour company, Canopy Tours Iquitos, had no GPS tracker on the boat, no insurance and no security measures in place, despite the fact that she was later told that this kind of incident has happened in the area before. 'We were completely abandoned by the people that were supposed to look after us,' she said. In response, Canopy Tours Iquitos said the incident, which occurred on May 14, was a chance event outside of its control that 'was immediately reported to the authorities.' 'We activated our emergency protocols straight away, offered our assistance to the affected group and have been actively cooperating with the investigation,' the company said in a Facebook post published Tuesday. In addition, the company said it would strengthen security measures, including introducing GPS monitoring, closer cooperation with the police and more training for staff. According to the US State Department, travelers to Peru should 'exercise increased caution due to crime, civil unrest, and the risk of kidnapping. Some areas have increased risk.' In a travel advisory update published May 16, the department underlined that 'crime is common in Peru.' 'Petty theft, carjackings, muggings, assaults, and other violent crime often happen even in daylight hours and with many witnesses around. Kidnapping is rare, but it does occur,' it said. CNN has contacted Canopy Tours Iquitos, the Peruvian national police and the Spanish Embassy in Peru for comment.
CNN
21-05-2025
- CNN
Armed assailants rob tourists, drain bank accounts on Peruvian Amazon boat trip
Armed men hijacked a tourist boat in the Amazon rainforest in Peru, robbed all 14 people on board and forced them to empty their bank accounts via mobile apps, according to one of the victims. Spanish TikToker Elisabet de la Almudena, who has more than 235,000 followers on the platform, described the ordeal as the 'worst day of her life' in a 4.5-minute video uploaded Tuesday. According to her account, she was part of a 14-person group, including her parents and 6-year-old daughter, that set off on an all-day boat tour from the city of Iquitos, a popular jumping-off point to explore the rainforest. 'We contracted a family tour, a sightseeing tour, and we ended up being kidnapped,' she said. Four men armed with pistols and a machine gun boarded the boat and sailed it deep into the forest, said de la Almudena, where they took everyone's belongings and even the vessel's motor. 'Through mobile phone applications, they asked us to take the money out of our accounts and transfer it to one of their accounts, otherwise they would not leave,' she added. 'I wouldn't wish it upon anyone,' de la Almudena said. The passengers then took pieces of wood from the boat and used them to row down the river, where they came upon a family in another boat that towed them to safety, she said. De la Almudena claimed that the tour company, Canopy Tours Iquitos, had no GPS tracker on the boat, no insurance and no security measures in place, despite the fact that she was later told that this kind of incident has happened in the area before. 'We were completely abandoned by the people that were supposed to look after us,' she said. In response, Canopy Tours Iquitos said the incident, which occurred on May 14, was a chance event outside of its control that 'was immediately reported to the authorities.' 'We activated our emergency protocols straight away, offered our assistance to the affected group and have been actively cooperating with the investigation,' the company said in a Facebook post published Tuesday. In addition, the company said it would strengthen security measures, including introducing GPS monitoring, closer cooperation with the police and more training for staff. According to the US State Department, travelers to Peru should 'exercise increased caution due to crime, civil unrest, and the risk of kidnapping. Some areas have increased risk.' In a travel advisory update published May 16, the department underlined that 'crime is common in Peru.' 'Petty theft, carjackings, muggings, assaults, and other violent crime often happen even in daylight hours and with many witnesses around. Kidnapping is rare, but it does occur,' it said. CNN has contacted Canopy Tours Iquitos, the Peruvian national police and the Spanish Embassy in Peru for comment.
CNN
21-05-2025
- CNN
Armed assailants rob tourists, drain bank accounts on Peruvian Amazon boat trip
Armed men hijacked a tourist boat in the Amazon rainforest in Peru, robbed all 14 people on board and forced them to empty their bank accounts via mobile apps, according to one of the victims. Spanish TikToker Elisabet de la Almudena, who has more than 235,000 followers on the platform, described the ordeal as the 'worst day of her life' in a 4.5-minute video uploaded Tuesday. According to her account, she was part of a 14-person group, including her parents and 6-year-old daughter, that set off on an all-day boat tour from the city of Iquitos, a popular jumping-off point to explore the rainforest. 'We contracted a family tour, a sightseeing tour, and we ended up being kidnapped,' she said. Four men armed with pistols and a machine gun boarded the boat and sailed it deep into the forest, said de la Almudena, where they took everyone's belongings and even the vessel's motor. 'Through mobile phone applications, they asked us to take the money out of our accounts and transfer it to one of their accounts, otherwise they would not leave,' she added. 'I wouldn't wish it upon anyone,' de la Almudena said. The passengers then took pieces of wood from the boat and used them to row down the river, where they came upon a family in another boat that towed them to safety, she said. De la Almudena claimed that the tour company, Canopy Tours Iquitos, had no GPS tracker on the boat, no insurance and no security measures in place, despite the fact that she was later told that this kind of incident has happened in the area before. 'We were completely abandoned by the people that were supposed to look after us,' she said. In response, Canopy Tours Iquitos said the incident, which occurred on May 14, was a chance event outside of its control that 'was immediately reported to the authorities.' 'We activated our emergency protocols straight away, offered our assistance to the affected group and have been actively cooperating with the investigation,' the company said in a Facebook post published Tuesday. In addition, the company said it would strengthen security measures, including introducing GPS monitoring, closer cooperation with the police and more training for staff. According to the US State Department, travelers to Peru should 'exercise increased caution due to crime, civil unrest, and the risk of kidnapping. Some areas have increased risk.' In a travel advisory update published May 16, the department underlined that 'crime is common in Peru.' 'Petty theft, carjackings, muggings, assaults, and other violent crime often happen even in daylight hours and with many witnesses around. Kidnapping is rare, but it does occur,' it said. CNN has contacted Canopy Tours Iquitos, the Peruvian national police and the Spanish Embassy in Peru for comment.
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- The Guardian
Spanish tourists robbed by armed ‘river pirates' in Peruvian Amazon
A Spanish tourist has recounted how an armed gang calling themselves 'river pirates' robbed her and her family aboard a boat travelling down the Amazon River in Peru. In a video on TikTok, one of the tourists, Elisabet de la Almudena, said she experienced the 'worst day of her life' on 14 May, when four armed assailants holding pistols and one machine gun boarded the boat she was travelling on with her parents and six-year-old daughter. She said the gunmen forced them to open banking apps on their phones and empty their accounts. 'We contracted a family tour, a sightseeing tour,' she said, adding that they were taken further into the jungle after being robbed and were left stranded there for an hour. 'The hardest part was when these people boarded the boat. Through mobile phone applications, they asked us to take the money out of our accounts and transfer it to one of their accounts, otherwise they would not leave,' she added. De la Almudena said there were about 14 Spanish tourists on the boat, including children and elderly people, who were all released shaken but unharmed after the ordeal. She said that a local family found them stranded and helped them get back to Iquitos, where they arrived in the early hours of the morning. She also alleged that the tour company, Canopy Tours Iquitos, did not have an emergency protocol or a GPS unit on the boat. In a statement on Tuesday, the tour operator Canopy Tours Iquitos said the incident was beyond its control and 'was reported immediately to authorities'. 'From the beginning, we activated our emergency protocols, offered our assistance to the affected group and have been actively cooperating with the investigation,' the statement said. The company also said it was improving its security measures in response to the incident, including GPS monitoring, and was working more closely with the River Police. The company and Spanish embassy in Peru could not be immediately contacted by the Guardian. The risk of armed robbery is low in Peru, however, the US state department has warned its citizens to 'exercise increased caution due to crime, civil unrest, and the risk of kidnapping' in certain parts of the country.
