Briton held by Peru police over nude snaps at sacred Inca site
After Malaysian mountain flashers...
A BRITON was held by police for stripping off at a sacred Inca citadel as part of a craze among tourists for taking nude photos of each other.
Adam Burton, 23, and a French friend were accused of ‘offences against morality’ after being seized by officers while still naked at the 15th- century mountain-top site of Machu Picchu in Peru.
Police later publicly humiliated them by releasing the nude images to warn other tourists against lewd behaviour at the citadel.
The photos, which were taken on a mobile phone, showed Burton and Eric Xavier Mariec, 28, in bodybuilder poses. The pair are thought to have been released by officers.
Peruvian authorities began cracking down on tourists taking naked photos at the site after a series of
‘Probably not a good idea’
pictures appeared on the internet. An 18-year-old Australian and a 30year- old New Zealander were detained by guards for baring their backsides at the fortress in 2013.
They were held in custody and forced to delete images from their digital camera – but not before they had gone on social media.
Another video was posted to YouTube in February 2014 showing a naked couple streaking across Machu Picchu with a park guard in hot pursuit.
The footage, filmed by another tourist, showed the couple clutching their clothes as they leapt over the ancient stone walls.
Surveillance was increased at Machu Picchu in March 2014 after nude photos and streaking became increasingly common at the Unesco World Heritage site, which is 350 miles from the capital, Lima. The ruins, set 8,000ft above sea level in the Andes, attract 2,500 visitors a day during the high season.
Stripping at tourist sites has become a global trend.
British gap-year student Eleanor Hawkins, 24, was jailed last year for taking her clothes off on the holy mountain of Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia with friends. Days after her prank, the region was struck by a deadly earthquake – and tribal elders blamed it on Miss Hawkins and her group for their disrespect.
After pleading guilty to a public nuisance offence, the Southampton University graduate was fined £1,000 and ordered to fly back to Britain, where she admitted taking part in the risqué snap had been ‘foolish’. Last September, six drunk Britons were fined after cavorting naked in a Roman fountain.
The architects stripped and plunged into the Fountain of the Naiads at 6am in front of locals, who called police as the naked men and topless women frolicked.
Last night, a spokesman for the holiday firm Fertur Peru Travel, which organises tours to Machu Picchu, said: ‘ Stripping naked at Machu Picchu probably isn’t a great idea, unless you want to be removed from the citadel and possibly face criminal charges. Prudish perhaps, but those are the rules.’
The Foreign Office said it was looking into the reports and was in contact with Peruvian authorities.