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Tourist falls to death while posing for photo

While posing for a photo at the top of Machu Picchu, the famous Inca site in Peru located more than 2430 meters above ground, a German tourist made a fatal fall of 200 meters.

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The accident occurred on Wednesday when Oliver Paps, 51, asked a fellow take a picture of him as he climbed to the top of the Inca citadel. According to his friend who narrated the issue to the local police, Oliver had asked him to take a photo of "remembrance" as he jumped "in the air".

"I do not know what he wanted to do but while another German took a photo of him, he jumped and fell into the abyss and instantly," said a spokesman for the Machu Picchu Commissioner in Cusco, about 1,100 kilometers southeast of Lima.

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The man had reportedly circumvented the security barriers put in place to prevent such incidents.

The body of the tourist was recovered in the ravine and transported on Thursday by train to Cusco morgue before repatriation to Germany. According to regional cultural department of Cusco, the man went around the security gates to enter an area that had been prohibited because of its dangerousness.

Machu Picchu is an Incan citadel set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, above the Urubamba River valley. Built in the 15th century and later abandoned, it’s renowned for its sophisticated dry-stone walls that fuse huge blocks without the use of mortar, intriguing buildings that play on astronomical alignments, and panoramic views. Its exact former use remains a mystery.

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