TV crew accused of killing lost-tribe children with flu

Matt Currington, a London-based documentary maker, has been blamed for triggering a "mini-epidemic" in the village of 250 people which led to the deaths of three children and one adult of the Matsigenka people, who live in the isolated Amazonian Cumerjali area of south-eastern Peru.

The 38-year-old was employed by Cicada Productions as researcher when he travelled to the area with a guide last year to scout for locations for the World's Lost Tribes series, which airs on the Discovery Channel.

Government officials say there has been an outbreak of respiratory sickness since he and a guide visited the region despite warnings not to interact with the tribe, who have no contact with outsiders.

The Peruvian government has consulted the regional Indian rights organisation Fenama and plans to ban the company from returning to the area.

Survival International, a campaigning group for indigenous peoples around the world, condemned the TV crew for ignoring warnings to stay away from the area's most vulnerable communities.

A spokesman said: "They were warned not to go upstream, but were unhappy with the tribe in Yomybato - the village they were permitted to visit - as the Indians appeared too westernised. So, in searching for a more stereotypical tribe, they came into contact with a vulnerable community.

"We even have people working on the ground who claim that the crew offered the tribe more traditional costumes.

"Through their indiscriminate chasing of 'so called' witch doctors and head hunters these reality TV crews are jeopardising the future of indigenous communities across the world."

Cicada strongly denied the allegations. "The researcher and his guide did not visit the area where the deaths are said to have occurred and no deaths occurred among the individuals they met," a spokesman said.

On his website, Mr Currington says he has "a personal passion for working with indigenous peoples". Speaking from Colombia, where he is working on another documentary, he told the Standard: "I'm not pleased about this at all. What is being said about this is way, way out of bounds," before asking us to refer all enquiries to Cicada.