At least 900 people have been trapped near Peru’s Inca city of Machu Picchu after protesters blocked the tracks.

Around 1,400 tourists were evacuated, but hundreds of others were left stranded after the protesters clashed with officials and bus companies as a contract row escalated.

Trains in the mountainous Cusco region near the ancient city were suspended after locals blocked the railway with ‘rocks of various sizes,’the operator PeruRail said.

It also claimed ‘third parties’ had dug up part of the rail route, making evacuation operations slower.

People visiting Machu Picchu in the Andes – which sees more than 1.5 million visitors each year – usually take the 68-mile train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes.

Some people trek part of the route, which covers 24 miles in around four days.

The clashes flared up last week after a bus concession ended with the operator, Consettur, according to Reuters.

Protesters accuse the process of replacing the operator of a lack of transparency and fairness.

Locals are reportedly demanding that a new company run the bus service from the train station to the archaeological site.

For hundreds of tourists, the row means Machu Picchu is out of bounds by train until the tracks are cleared.

There were further clashes when the police attempted to unblock the railway, leaving 14 police officers injured, according to AFP.

The US Embassy issued a fresh travel warning after the clashes, saying ‘local organisations are protesting changes regarding the bus service contract serving the route to the Machu Picchu site, including by placing objects on the rail line tracks connecting Ollantaytambo and Machupicchu Pueblo.’

It said the protests are expected to continue and that railways and roads to Machu Picchu ‘may be disrupted without prior notice.’

Peru’s tourism minister, Desilu Leon, said 1,400 visitors stranded at the station had been evacuated on Monday night.

Meanwhile, some of the 900 people stuck at the Unesco world heritage site decided to start making their way back on foot.

Miguel Salas, a tourist from Chile, told AFP: ‘In my case, I can’t do it because my wife is pregnant.’

More than 1,200 tourists had to be evacuated in January last year after protests erupted over the new ticket sales system at the site.

A wave of protests in 2022 saw huge boulders being placed on the railway line.

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Multiple travel alerts have been issued to British citizens after Russia’s Far East was rattled by an 8.8-magnitude earthquake, resulting in tsunami waves as high as 13 feet.

Travellers in a dozen countries – the US, Canada, Philippines, Taiwan, China, Tonga, Togo, New Zealand, Ecuador, Solomon Islands, Peru, Samoa, Japan, Kiribati, Costa Rica, French Polynesia and Chile – have been urged to follow ‘local advice’ as evacuations are ongoing.

Follow the latest updates on the earthquake on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula with Metro’s live blog

In Japan alone, nearly two million people have been rushed to safety from coastal areas in the north, with the meteorological agency confirming that sections of the east coast of Hokkaido and main island Honshu had seen waves of up to one metre in height.

Part of Shinkansen bullet train service has also been temporarily axed dueto the warnings.

What is the UK Foreign Office advice?

The UK Foreign Office said: ‘An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.7 has struck the eastern coast of Russia in the Kamchatka Peninsula region. A tsunami threat message has been issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

‘If you are in the affected areas potentially affected by the earthquake or tsunami you should follow the advice of the local authorities.’

But the FCDO has stopped short of actually warning against travel to any of the affected regions following the earthquake – apart from Russia, but the country has been on Britain’s ‘no-go’ list since the early days of the war in Ukraine.

The advice was released in the early hours of the mornings, and so far the government has not updated it.

So no areas in Japan, the US or Hawaii, for example, were deemed ‘unsafe’ because of the tsunami – but people have still been urged not to travel.

Are there any disruptions to flights?

In the hours after the earthquake – and the multiple tremors that followed – hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from coastal areas, with some of them trying to make a run for airports.

While some tsunami warnings have been downgraded and alerts dropped, as many as hundreds of flights have been cancelled.

Guangzhou Baiyun, Shanghai Pudong and Shenzhen Bao’an International Airports in China, Sendai Airport in Japan,Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in Indonesia and the Las Vegas Airport in the US have all been graded five – the maximum in FlightRadar’s disruption index, indicating major problems.

Pictures showed dozens of travellers waiting for updates after their flights were cancelled.

All flights out of Maui Airport were also stopped for the night, with more than 200 people left sheltering at the departure lounge.

Is the ‘worst’ over?

So far, the impact of the tsunami has not been as destructive as expected.

Chip McCreery, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Director, stressed the ‘worst part of it’ is over.

Yet, South American nations like Chile and Colombia are bracing for the threat.

Chile has upgraded its tsunami warning to the highest level, covering most of its lengthy Pacific coast.

The country’s national emergency service said it was evacuating hundreds of people and school was cancelled along much of the coast.

Similarly, Colombia has issued tsunami alerts and warnings for the areas of Choco and Narino, and for Cauca and Valle del Cauca respectively.

The country’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said: ‘Preemptive evacuation of beaches and low-tide areas on the coasts of Narino and Choco is recommended. 

‘Go to high ground and away from the coast.’

Meanwhile, the Washington branch of the US National Weather Service said coastal areas west of Seattle were still seeing severe waves.

It asked people not to travel to the shores to watch the waves, and instead ‘keep away.’

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A map shows where the warning and other alerts for tsunami are in the Pacific (Picture: Metro)

A map shows the epicentre of one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded, along with large parts of the Pacific Ocean now under tsunami w…

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