Machu Picchu tourists flee

PERU (AFP) — Peru evacuated some 1,400 tourists overnight from the train station that serves the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, while about 900 others remained stranded Tuesday as protesters blocked the railway tracks, officials said.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, the ancient fortified complex receives some 4,500 visitors on average each day, many of them foreigners, according to the tourism ministry.

Residents placed logs and rocks on the tracks Monday to demand a new company be chosen to run the buses that ferry visitors from the Aguas Calientes train station, at the foot of Machu Picchu, to the site itself.

“We managed to evacuate about 1,400 tourists” stuck at the train station in an overnight operation before a fresh blockade Tuesday, Tourism Minister Desilu Leon told RPP radio.

Authorities have not said where the visitors were from.

A police statement said 14 agents were injured in clashes with protesters during Monday night’s temporary unblocking of the tracks.

After the evacuation was halted, trapped tourists told Agence France-Presse authorities had suggested they walk for several hours to catch a train or some other means of transport out of the Machu Picchu area.