A Train Collision Near Peru’s Machu Picchu Has Injured Several Tourists

Nearly a dozen people, including several foreigners, were injured when two trains collided Tuesday near Peru’s most popular tourist destination, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu.

The two competing train companies crashed along the main route transporting tourists to the Unesco world heritage site in Ollantaytambo village, the Guardian reports.

Peru’s civil defense institute said at least 10 people were injured in the passenger train collision, five seriously.

A police officer in Ollantaytambo, Edson Quispe, provided a higher count, telling Reuters that 23 passengers sustained injuries.

It remains unclear what caused the collision.

Eyewitnesses told the Guardian that a train operated by PeruRail collided into the backend of a train operated by IncaRail.

Before the crash, a group of Peruvian tourists reportedly stage a protest over being unable to board the train at an entry point reserved for locals.

“We stopped for an hour, then the protest was cleared, the train continued its route, and five minutes later we felt a strong impact on the back. It was a PeruRail train that hit us,” Valeria Lozana told the state news agency Andina, according to the Guardian‘s translation.

Pictures posted to social media showed the shattered glass and blown out windows of one of the train carriages. Other images captured the trains smacked together on the tracks.

https://twitter.com/portalturismope/status/1024381660211625984

IncaRail said only one of its passengers, a Chilean woman, was injured in the collision, while PeruRail said some passengers were taken away in ambulances.