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Tourist 'Whacked With Stick' After Climbing Mexican Pyramid

A tourist was surrounded and hit with a stick after climbing the protected Mayan monument known as El Castillo, or the Pyramid of Kukulcan, at the archeological site of Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico, in footage posted on January 29.

Daniel Fretwell recorded the moment the tourist reached the summit of the monument and was taken back down the stairway by security. One person can be seen punching the man as he walks away. Another person carrying a large stick is also seen striking the tourist.

Fretwell said he started filming after he noticed the man running up the pyramid. “I could hear and see maybe 30 or 40 people shouting ‘no, no come down, don’t do it, no.’ People were whistling trying to draw the man’s attention that he was doing wrong,” Fretwell told Storyful.

“After we left we saw the man being taken away in an unmarked vehicle. The tour guide told us he will face a heavy fine,” Fretwell said.

Climbing the pyramid has been banned since 2008 amid preservation concerns, and the Congress of the United Mexican States established hefty fines for such acts in the Federal Law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic and Historical Areas.

This follows a similar incident from November 2022, where a tourist was booed and doused with water by a crowd for climbing the same pyramid. Credit: Daniel Fretwell via Storyful

Video transcript

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

- [INAUDIBLE]

- And whacked with a stick.

- Yeah, I know. But down when he got to the bottom--

- [INAUDIBLE]

- Yeah, but when he got to the bottom there--

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]