HK Tourists Hid In Hotel Kitchen During Peru Raid

Hong Kong tourists caught up in a deadly armed robbery at a Peru hotel hid in a kitchen as gun shots rang out, a travel agency chief said on Thursday.

None of the 40 or so Hongkongers were injured during the raid which left a local tour guide dead, although some of the tourists were robbed of their belongings.

The general manager of the Jetour travel agency, Chow Wing-keung, said some of the Hong Kong group heard gunshots during the robbery at the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica hotel on Tuesday night.

Staff took the tourists to a kitchen for safety, Chow said, and they hid there until the robbery was over.

Chow said the police arrived at the scene around an hour later, by which time the robbers had already fled.

He told RTHK that some members of the group had been left shaken by their ordeal. But all of them had decided to continue with their tour, apart from one tourist whose passport was stolen.

Hong Kong's Immigration Department said it was helping this tourist arrange an emergency travel document.

The founder of the hotel group told a Peruvian newspaper that he thought the gang had shot dead a local tour guide during the robbery because he was wearing a uniform and they mistakenly believed he was a security guard.