All citizens safe after Peru robbery: embassy

No Chinese citizens were killed or injured in an attack at a luxury Peruvian hotel Tuesday night, according to the Chinese Embassy in Peru on Thursday.

Forty-one Chinese tourists from a tour group in Hong Kong were in the Inkaterra Hotel in the Madre de Dios region when the robbery occurred, according to a statement published by the embassy on Thursday.

Some 10 armed suspects robbed the hotel and escaped after killing a local tour guide, the embassy said.

No Chinese nationals was injured, and only one tourist’s passport was taken, an embassy employee told the Global Times on Thursday.

The embassy will continue to monitor developments, and reminded Chinese citizens to better secure their safety, said the statement.

Minister Peru, the Peruvian Interior Ministry’s Twitter account, said on Thursday that the national police “intensified actions” to capture the suspects, who included foreigners.

The suspects killed a 38-yearold Peruvian local guide named Leon Humani and escaped.

Jose Koechlin, chairman of the hotel, said the robbers did not take hostages since they entered and left the hotel within “a very short time.”

The hotel manager chose to evacuate customers and staff to a safe place and then cut off the electricity when he detected unusual movement.

The number of Chinese tourists to Peru rapidly increased from 2015 to 2017. The average stay of Chinese tourists was four to five days, and they each spent an average of $2,000. The visa policy implemented in 2016 has played a positive role in promoting tourism among Chinese tourists, according to statistics from Promperu, Peru’s tourism board.