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.