British man burned to death in the Amazon after locals accuse him of murder

A British man was pulled from a police station and burned to death in front of officers in Ecuador on Sunday, it has been claimed.

Deep in the Amazon Rainforest, a celebration by locals in a small riverside village ended in double murder.

A foreigner – reported as ‘English’ or ‘British’ in local media – was beaten by residents who accused him of shooting a man dead in the isolated village of Playas del Cuyabeno.

Police arrested the unnamed British man and locked him in the station for protection while waiting for reinforcements, Diario Extra reports.

But his safety behind bars didn’t last.

The group of locals returned six hours later, broke him out of the police station and set him on fire outside until he died.

He was later seen lying on the ground covered in a white sheet while people stood around.

Accessible only by boat along the Aguarico River, specialist police had still not arrived to take him to Lago Agrio.

Playas del Cuyabeno has a small tourism industry focused on outdoor activities in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, the country’s second largest.

Tour packages – mostly costing upwards of £200 – include trips to see river and rainforest wildlife across a 5,900km square area.

Among those are Amazon Pink Dolphins, jaguars, three-toed sloth, anacondas, caimans, turtles, iguanas, scarlet macaws, toucans, and monkeys.

Far southwest on the other side of the Andes mountain, a British businessman spent four days in captivity after he was kidnapped in December 2023.

Colin Armstrong, 78, was pulled from his home by hooded men in Guayaquil amid a rise in kidnaps for ransom in Ecuador.

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