North Sentinel Island: US tourist arrested after sailing to remote island to leave can of Coke for world's most isolated tribe to try

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island on Saturday (29 March) using a makeshift craft to cross a 25-mile body of water, before leaving them the drink - and a coconut. North Sentinel Island is home to the Sentinelese, a pre-Neolithic tribe that has no contact with the modern world notorious for killing people who land on the shore.

The island has been off limits since 1996 and Indian Navy vessels patrol an exclusion zone to prevent people from landing on the island. Polyakov was arrested on his return from the island.

Police said he used a GPS to navigate his way to the island on an inflatable boat that had a motor fitted at a local workshop. He waited off shore for around an hour, blowing a whistle to make sure the coast was clear before stepping onto the island, leaving a can of Coke and a coconut, collected some sand and filmed a video before he left.

He returned to Kurma Dera Beach at 7pm, where local fishermen spotted him and alerted the police. It is unclear if anyone went back to the island to retrieve the can of Coke and coconut left by Polyakov.

Police director HS Dhaliwal said: “We are getting more details about him and his intention to visit the reserved tribal area. We are also trying to find out where else he has visited during his stay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We are questioning the hotel staff where he was staying in Port Blair.”