More than 50 tourists — 41 of them Hongkongers — emerged unscathed from an armed robbery at a Peruvian hotel that left a local tour guide dead on Tuesday night.
Peruvian news outlet El Comercio reported that the intruders, who are believed to come from a multinational gang called Comando Vermelho, arrived by boat, storming the premises of the Inkaterra Reserva Amazónica hotel at around 8:20pm on Tuesday armed with semiautomatic rifles.
The suspects reportedly held the staff they encountered while surveying the premises, ultimately stealing jewels from one of the hotel’s safes.
In a statement, hotel management said that it was alerted to the intruders’ presence by CCTV, and was able to move guests to a safe place, later cutting off the electricity to confound the intruders.
According to a report by RTHK, one tourist lost a passport, and another lost a cellphone during the robbery.
Local tour guide Elías León Huamaní came upon the intruders after the power was cut, according to the hotel’s management.
Hotel President José Koechlin told El Comercio that he believed Huamaní was shot because he was wearing a uniform, and was mistaken for a security guard. Police said he was shot 13 times.
Koechlin clarified that the hotel’s guests weren’t taken hostage, as had been reported in some outlets, and that the entire encounter only lasted “a very short time.”
The Peruvian Ministry of Interior, meanwhile, announced on Twitter that the National Police were “intensifying actions in order to capture the criminal group.”
#PuertoMaldonado La @PoliciaPeru intensifica las acciones para capturar a banda delictiva, presuntamente integrada por delincuentes extranjeros, responsable del asalto producido anoche en el hotel Inkaterra, que dejó una persona fallecida. pic.twitter.com/UYgooIyBN5
— Ministerio del Interior 🇵🇪 (@MininterPeru) February 20, 2019
The Chinese government-backed daily the Global Times reported that the Chinese embassy in Peru issued a statement saying that it was monitoring developments in the case, and urging Chinese tourists “to better secure their safety.”
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