Van falls off cliff after visiting Machu Picchu and kills 4 tourists in Peru

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At least four tourists were killed and another 16 were injured returning from a tour of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, when the minibus they were in crashed into a cliff on the highway, Peruvian authorities said on Monday (22).

Among the injured are four French citizens, two Greeks, two Israelis, two Canadians, two Argentines, two Peruvians, one Dutch and one Spaniard, according to an official statement released in Cusco. The dead are three Colombians and one Peruvian.

The Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Roberto Sánchez, said at a press conference in the city, alongside regional authorities, that the fall took place on an escarpment of just over 100 meters.

The 16 injured were taken to two hospitals in Cusco. Among them is the driver, a Peruvian national.

The accident took place on Sunday night (21), in the Abra Málaga region, 105 km from the city of Cusco. “There was fog at the accident site. We regret such a tragic event,” Sánchez said. In an interview, the local police chief highlighted the difficulty in the search.

“We express our condolences to the families and governments of foreign tourists who have sadly passed away,” the Peruvian Foreign Ministry said on Twitter.

President Pedro Castillo also regretted the case, adding that he ordered the Ministry of Tourism and Foreign Affairs to provide assistance to the injured, contact the victims’ families and the respective embassies to arrange for the repatriation of the bodies.

A Peruvian Air Force plane landed at the airport in Cusco at around 1 pm local time (3 pm GMT) to take some wounded to Lima, according to local vehicles. Road accidents are frequent in Peru, due to the poor state of the roads, the lack of signs and the lack of control by the authorities.

On July 31, a pickup truck fell into a 200-meter abyss, killing 16 people, including children, on a remote rural road in central Junín. In February, a bus crashed down a 100-meter cliff on a rural road in the La Libertad region near the Andes, leaving at least 20 people dead and 33 injured.

Around 5,000 Peruvian and foreign tourists visit Machu Picchu daily, built in the 15th century by the Inca emperor Pachacútec and considered the jewel of Peruvian tourism.

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