German Tourist Falls 130 Feet To His Death After Posing For Photo Atop Machu Picchu

Not to be mistaken for the cartoon character Machu Pikachu. Story out of Peru:

A German tourist has died while trying to take a photo atop Machu Picchu. The tourist, identified by the BBC and Peruvian media as 51-year-old Oliver Park, died Wednesday after slipping from a ledge and falling approximately 130 feet.

He was posing for a mid-leap photo when he fell off Machu Picchu mountain, which overlooks the ancient Incan citadel of the same name.

Peruvian officials said the tourist bypassed a security cordon and ventured into an off-limits area before tumbling to his death, El Comercio reported.

“He asked a man who was there to take a photo of him,” Guillermo Mestas, a Peruvian tourist, told television station Canal N. “The man came over to take the photo and in the moment he was handing him the camera, he lost his balance and fell.”

By the time rescuers reached the tourist about an hour and a half later, the man was dead, Mestas said. Cont.

Story from - The Washington Post