US tourist held for entering forbidden Indian Ocean island

ISTANBUL

Indian police arrested a US tourist for illegally traveling to a restricted island in the Indian Ocean, local media reported on Friday.

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, allegedly reached North Sentinel Island, part of an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal, in an attempt to make contact with the isolated Sentinelese tribe.

He left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut on the shore before authorities detained him, Press Trust of India reported.

The Indian government strictly prohibits outsiders from traveling within three miles of the island to protect the Indigenous people, believed to number around 150, from outside diseases and to preserve their way of life.

"The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation," Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal said.

The Sentinelese last made international headlines in 2018 when they killed John Allen Chau, 27, an American missionary who illegally landed on their beach.

Chau’s body was never recovered, and no investigation was conducted due to Indian laws prohibiting entry to the island. Officials at the time said he was shot and killed by arrows.