Shira Roth
Shira RothFacebook

Shira Roth, a 21-year-old Israeli tourist from Ma'ale Adumim, died due to as yet unknown causes in Peru on Thursday during her travels in Huaraz in the western region of the South American state.

The Foreign Ministry on Friday morning confirmed her death, and said the Israeli embassy is working with local authorities to get information about the cause of her death and to bring her body back to Israel.

During her trek in Peru, Roth began feeling ill and got on a bus headed towards the capital city of Lima. Several hours later she was found with no signs of life on the bus.

Roth's mother, Aviya, told Yedioth Aharonoth on Friday that she was in contact with her daughter on Thursday morning through the Whatsapp smart phone application.

"Yesterday morning she wrote to me on Whatsapp that she feels really bad and that her systems were collapsing, and that she is going to die. I wrote to her that they have to go to a doctor. Then in the morning a friend of hers writes to me that they were on their way to Lima to see a doctor," said Roth's mother.

"At 6 p.m. they told us that she went to sleep in the bus on the way to Lima, and her friends tried to wake her up and felt that she was cold, and understood that she passed away during the ride. It's a tragedy and a great loss for us."

There is speculation that elevation sickness was a factor in her death, with a lack of oxygen causing her sudden illness. She was on a trek with a friend and her friend's mother in mountains at an elevation of around 4,800 meters (nearly 3 miles).

While feeling slightly off for three days of the trek Roth considered taking special pills for elevation sickness according to her mother, but in the end she apparently chose not to take them.

Roth is the daughter of sound technician and radio broadcaster Hillel Roth, who was one of the first workers at Arutz Sheva. The Arutz Sheva staff joins in the deep sorrow of the Roth family at the loss of their young daughter and sends its heartfelt condolences.

Hillel Roth said, "according to what was said to us, she was on a very tall mountain in Peru, and apparently she didn't have enough oxygen."

Roth's death comes just two weeks after 24-year-old Orel Guetta of Kfar Saba was killed in Peru.

Guetta died in Cusco during an extreme sports activity. During the "Tarzan" swing rope, a pendulum jump of about 100 meters (109 yards) high, a cable snapped causing him to plummet and suffer serious wounds, and he bled to death before rescuers were able to reach the scene.