Story update: Ecuador security crackdown after nine Britons robbed at gunpoint

Nine Britons were held at gunpoint and robbed in a terrifying 45-minute ordeal on the first night of a trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

Armed with guns, knives and machetes, a masked gang burst in on the group as they sat down for dinner in their hotel in a small village on Monday night.

The gang tied up the nine Britons, two Canadians and a Greek in the party, and held knives to their throats and guns to the temples in a 45-minute ordeal. The guests were stripped of rings, passports, bags and cameras before the gang took their room keys.

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But one of the staff at the Mindo Gardens Lodge managed to escape and the gang fled before ransacking the rooms. The armed robbers got away with an estimated US$20,000 worth of possessions and cash in the attack in El Mindo, 84km outside the capital, Quito.

Two Britons lost passports. Among the group of seven men and five women were Alan and Jenny Parry, both aged 58, from Bedford. Both are regular travellers and had paid £3,000 each for the three-week trip.

"We were attacked by eight robbers, all armed with guns and knives," Alan Parry told Times Online. "They burst into the dining room and tied everybody up and threatened us. It went on for 45 minutes they only ran off because they were fearful the alarm would be raised."

The Parrys lost £1,700 worth of clothes, watches and other items - but not cash and passports. But a furious Mr Parry, the director of a lighting company in Surbiton, Surrey, accused the British consulate in Quito of being unhelpful and local authorities of trying to hush up the incident.

"The Greek consul was on the scene in an hour but nobody from the British Consulate has visited us. The Ecuadorian police were also very slow."

"There has been total indifference and I am not convinced the government are trying to do anything to catch the gang."

A Foreign Office spokesperson claims the Consulate did what it could do help the Parrys. She told Times Online: "The Embassy in Ecuador was made aware of the case by the group's tour operator and has provided consular assistance and advice to the group.

"The Consulate spoke to the tour agency in the UK, and the holiday rep to ascertain that none of them were physically injured or hurt and to get a reassurance that they were being taken back to Quito early Monday morning, and be accommodated in another hotel. They also advised the tour operators to file the police reports on the incidents and provided information about how to apply for replacement passports."

The group were travelling with Explore, a British holiday company that has run an Ecuadorian tour including Mindo for the past five years. The company sent a trained counsellor to Ecuador on Monday and has offered to fly the Britons home or change the itinerary.

But none have asked to do so and all 12 are continuing their holiday.

John Telfer, associate director of operations at Explore said: "We have been operating this tour without any incidents for several years.There has been no physical harm to the group but we need to address the psychological side of things. The range of reaction can be extreme."

The company is reviewing operations and Mindo has been removed from future itineraries - the next departure is in April.

According to one holiday company, The Best of Ecuador, the Mindo region is popular for ecotourism. "It is a fairly small village and popular area for many birdwatchers, with an altitude of 1390m climbing up to 4770m.

"An area of Premontane forest has a reserve area at the foot of Mindo called Bosque protector Mindo-Nambillo, which is home to some 350 bird species as well as being engulfed in incredible flora and fauna."

The travel website Moon adds: "Mindo is still a low-key place, but word is starting to get out. Lots of development is underway, in part because it’s so close to Quito. The surrounding forest is starting to be affected by an influx of settlers and tourists.

"Most worrisome is an oil pipeline from Quito to Esmeraldas that the Ecuadorian government put right through the middle of the area. With the help of foreign tourism operators and business owners, locals fought to stop it, to no avail, and the scar through the forest is only slowly fading."

Times Online contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for comment and is awaiting a response.

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