Tourist swallows memory card

6 February 2011 09:10 am

A female Russian tourist who visited the Sigiriya fortress had reportedly swallowed a memory card of a camcorder  to hide evidence after seeing police personnel arrive when officials had warned one of her fellow tourists not to play on the ‘Sinhapada’.

According to the police the woman who was among six Russian tourist couples visited the historic Sigiriya Fortress and one tourist had climbed on the Sinhapada (Foot of the lion) and played on it making various postures while another person had recorded them on a camcorder.

When the official of the Central Cultural Fund (CCF) had approached them to stop playing on the Sinhapada as it is prohibited even to touch the Sinhapada the tourists had assaulted the officials, police said.

After the police arrived, following a complaint by the CCF officials a female tourist had reportedly swallowed the memory card of the camcorder to hide the evidence.

Police had advised the officials and the tourists to go to the Sigiriya police and lodge a complaint. However, the tourists had been freed without a complaint on the instructions of the Director of the Sigiriya Project of the CCF, police said. (Kanchan Kumara Ariyadasa)