News from the cyberpunk era. Peruvian police believe the mysterious “flying aliens” who attacked a remote rural community in Peru are illegal gold miners with jetpacks, writes Vice.

The mysterious attacks began on July 11, 2023. According to locals, “strange creatures” visited an isolated indigenous community in rural Peru at night, harassing residents and attempting to kidnap a 15-year-old girl.

“These gentlemen are aliens. They seem armored like the green goblin from Spider Man. I have shot one twice and it didn’t fall. Instead, it elevated and disappeared,” Jairo Reátegui Ávila, a local leader of the Indigenous Ikitu group living in the northwestern Maynas province, told Peruvian radio station RPP Noticias. ““Their color is silver, their shoes are round in shape and with those, they rise up. They float one meter high and have a red light on their heel. Their heads are long, their mask is long, and their eyes are sort of yellowish.”

Footage from the video filmed at night and an enhanced version of it have been posted online.

Peruvian navy sailors and police officers traveled to the isolated community, located 10 hours by boat from Iquitos, the capital of Maynas province, to investigate strange disturbances in early August. Last week, authorities announced that they believe the perpetrators were members of illegal gold-mining gangs from Colombia and Brazil who used advanced technology to terrorize the community. The investigator in the case, Carlos Castro Quintanilla, said that 80% of illegal gold mining in the region takes place in the Nanay River basin, where the Iquitú community is located. One of the key facts in the investigation was the attempted kidnapping of a 15-year-old girl on July 29 2023.

Local teacher Christian Caleb Pacaya, who witnessed the attack, said they “used the most advanced technology, like engines that allow people to fly.” He said that after a Google search, he believes they were “jetpacks.”

Authorities have made no arrests in connection with the attacks and have not named the alleged attackers or their organization. However, prosecutors claim that 110 gold mining towns and 10 illegal mining camps have been destroyed in the area since the beginning of 2023.