Foreign tourists injured in train crash near Machu Picchu in Peru

Several foreign tourists were injured on Tuesday when a train struck the rear of another train near the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, a local police chief said.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred along a popular tourism route from the village of Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu in southern Peru, added Eulogio Farfan, a police chief in the nearby town of Urubamba.

At least 13 people were injured, most of them foreign tourists, said Farfan. A police officer in Ollantaytambo, Edson Quispe, said there were 23 injured in the collision.

Farfan said a train operated by PeruRail S.A., owned jointly by Belmond Ltd and Ferrocarril Transandino S.A., struck a train operated by IncaRail, another railway service that takes tourists to Machu Picchu, Peru’s biggest tourist site.

IncaRail said only one of its passengers, a Chilean woman, had been injured in the accident and the rest would continue their trip to Machu Picchu.

PeruRail said it activated its emergency protocol to evacuate the injured by ambulance and would investigate the cause.

Reporting by Mitra Taj and Reuters TV; Editing by Peter Cooney