Gissela was taken in protest against the fact that the authorities should not have provided assistance after an oil spill in September in the Cuninico river, according to AFP. The tourists and their local members were captured during a journey by riverboat up this very river in the Amazon, in northern Peru. To Radio Programas del Perú, a representative of the hostage takers says that they have taken about 70 prisoners, but eyewitnesses tell about about 150 hostages. The tourists who have been captured include both children, pregnant women and people with disabilities, and will come from Great Britain, Spain, France, the USA and Switzerland. They must have been told that it will take place for six to eight days until a solution is reached with the Peruvian authorities. A 90-day state of emergency was declared in the area on 27 September after 2,500 tonnes of crude oil went into the river from one of South America’s largest oil pipelines, which runs through the Amazon to the city of Piura.
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