Ten members of an remote Amazonian tribe are feared to have been killed by a group of gold prospectors.
A complaint has been filed with prosecutors in South America after the alleged killers bragged about it in a bar.
The tribespeople, who live in the Javari Valley on the Peruvian border, were said to have been looking for eggs along the bank of the river at the time.
Ten members of an remote Amazonian tribe are feared to have been killed by a group of gold prospectors
Some miners have been detained for questioning, but no deaths have been confirmed by the Brazilian authorities.
It has been reported that the suspects were showing a hand-carved paddle they claimed they had taken from the tribe.
‘It was crude bar talk,’ said Leila Silvia Burger Sotto-Maior, of the Brazilian agency on indigenous affairs (Funai).
A complaint has been filed with prosecutors in South America after the alleged killers bragged about it in a bar
‘They even bragged about cutting up the bodies and throwing them in the river,’ she said.
Federal prosecutors confirmed they opened an investigation but have not released further details.
While Funai said around ten tribesmen were attacked, indigenous leader Adelson Kora Kanamari claimed the number was as high as 21.
He also blamed Brazilian President Michel Temer, calling the attack ‘genocidal’, according to the Amazon Real portal.
The tribespeople, who live in the Javari Valley on the Peruvian border, were said to have been looking for eggs along the bank of the river at the time
Survival International says the area is home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere else on Earth.
The Javari Valley is the second-largest indigenous reserve in Brazil and is home to 20 out of 103 uncontacted tribes in Brazil.
Isolated peoples are particularly vulnerable and indigenous groups in Brazil in general have complained that their way of life is increasingly under threat from land conflicts.