Riot breaks out at Machu Picchu after tour companies allegedly scam hundreds
  • 2 years ago
A Brit tourist was caught in a riot that broke out at one of the Seven Wonders of the World - Machu Picchu in Peru. It was alleged tour operators scammed many sightseers leaving them in the lurch at the gates of the site. Police and local authorities had to close off the wonder to the hundreds of waiting tourists. One UK tourist managed to get his money's worth and narrowly avoid the chaos, but not without problems of his own. E-Commerce Analyst Jamie Headington, 31, from Nottingham, captured the chaos but said that he had his passport confiscated by authorities and would only get it back once he paid up for another ticket, despite already paying through a tour agency. Footage shows the large crowds gathering at the gates of the sight with police officers having to barricade gates as angry tourists tried to push through. Many of the tourists can be seen waving their paper tickets as they pack in close together. Eventually, Headington managed to get through with an invalid ticket in a mad rush where he managed to avoid the chaos behind him. Further clips show the madness behind the gate where he explained that "fights were breaking out" and the "police were arresting people". Headington said: "I was travelling, it was just a one-off trip to Peru, I also went to Bolivia but I've been travelling for a while, I was in Asia for the last five months. "Peru was a spontaneous, last-minute trip, pretty much the reason was to see Machu Picchu - I was going to see the Amazon in Bolivia but it's just a bit too far on the buses. "Nobody knew what was going on, even the police didn't know what was going on, nobody externally knew what was going on because the Ministry of Tourism and tourism agencies were having meetings. "A lot of anger was caused, for the most part because the tour agencies essentially sold tour packages, which included tickets for Machu Picchu so these people assumed they had tickets for that day. "The whole thing was a bit of a mess to be honest."