Peru indigenous group to release tourists held in protest -report

She earlier told RPP that the group had originally been informed they would be detained for six to eight days if there were no resolution, adding that they had been fed several times. Media reports cited the number of people being held as ranging from 70 to as many as 300, including between 17 and 23 foreign nationals.

A Peruvian indigenous group said it will release an estimated 150 tourists it held for over a day in a protest over alleged government inaction on oil spills in a river, local media reported Friday.

The indigenous group, from the Urarinas district in Loreto province in Peru's Amazon, said their action had been aimed at raising awareness, local news outlet RPP Noticias said. None of the tourists, who reportedly include a handful of U.S. and European nationals, were physically harmed, according to RPP.

"The right and respect for life must prevail. In this light, we are going to provide the recourses so that the people... can move to their destinations. That will be before noon," the chief of the indigenous group Watson Trujillo told RPP late Friday morning. One of the tourists, Angela Ramirez from Peru, told Reuters by phone that she had not yet heard any information as to the timing of their release.

Among those detained while traveling in river boats was a one-month-old child, people with disabilities, and pregnant women, she said. She earlier told RPP that the group had originally been informed they would be detained for six to eight days if there were no resolution, adding that they had been fed several times.

Media reports cited the number of people being held as ranging from 70 to as many as 300, including between 17 and 23 foreign nationals. The UK foreign office said in a statement that it was in contact with local authorities regarding a "very small number of British nationals involved in an incident in Peru."

Local authorities are yet to make a formal statement regarding the incident.