Peru: Reclusive Mashco-Piro tribe raids Monte Salvado village for food, causing mass evacuation

At least 39 residents from a remote area in Peru have evacuated their houses after an indigenous tribe raided their village.

Around 200 members of the Mashco-Piro tribe armed with bows and arrows reached the village of Monte Salvado, near the border with Brazil, looking for food.

Nobody was injured in the incident as very few people were at the village when the tribesmen raided it, authorities reported, adding that it is safer for the villagers to be relocated to a bigger town.

This is the third time that Mashco-Piro members have reached Monte Salvado in search of food this year.

Hundreds of Mashco-Piro members were slaughtered by the army of Peruvian baron Carlos Fitzcarrald in 1894. The survivors retreated to remote areas in the Amazon forest and have avoided contact with the outer world since.

According to Survival International, a London-based NGO which advocates worldwide tribes' rights, Mashco-Piro is one of the 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru's Amazon forest whose survival is threatened by illegal logging.

The tribes are vulnerable to any form of contact as they have not built up immunity and resistance to modern diseases.

In July, Survival International criticised members of the Ashaninka community for approaching indigenous members believed to be part of the Rio Xinane tribe in Brazil. The tribesmen were believed to have escaped Peru due to illegal logging.

In June, Funai (Brazil's National Indian Foundation) warned of the "imminent death of uncontacted Indians" who flee Peru and reach Brazil. The warning followed increased sightings of tribes over recent months.