Never-before-seen photos have emerged of one of the last the last uncontacted Amazon tribes who the Peru government is trying to approach after they shot and killed two men in the chest with a bow and arrow.

For 600 years the Mashco Piro clan – also known as Cujareno people – have lived in the forest in Peru close to the border with Brazil and had no contact with the outside world.

But recently – threatened by 21st century logging, drugs cartels and tourism – the rarely seen indigenous tribe have broken cover from the forest to raid villages for food, tools and weapons to hunt.

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Secrets: The group have spent at least 600 years ling in the jungle - but now their isolated lives are increasingly threatened by logging, drug cartels and tourism

Mystery: The Mashco Piro tribe, who live in the Amazon rainforest in Peru on the border with Brazil, are one of the last uncontacted indigenous groups left

Uncontacted: The tribe have been seen three times already this year - a record number - as they are tempted out from the forest by modern living in search of food, metal weapons for hunting and tools

Spotted: They were seen by Jean-Paul van Belle, a professor at the University of Cape Town, in 2011 who said he spent two hours on a boat as the Mashco Piro tribe stared at him from the riverbank

Unknown: These amazing pictures show the group on the bank of the Madre de Dios river where they are tempted in the dry season to camp and find turtle eggs

In May, Leonardo Perez, 20, was killed when he was shot with an arrow by tribe members who wanted his tools.

In 2011 local guide Shaco Flores, a Matsigenka Indian, was murdered by the tribe.

Shaco had given them machetes, pots and pans for 20 years and had developed a good relationship with the clan.

But it is believed he was killed with an arrow to the heart after he tried to persuade them to settle and end to their nomadic hunter-gatherer life.

‘The Mashco Piro have been present in this area for as long as anyone can remember, and have in a way been enticed out of their forest home onto the riverbanks by missionaries and other missionised indigenous people,’ Rebecca Spooner for campaign group Survival International told MailOnline.

‘They have been given pots and pans and machetes, and are now asking for more.’

The increasing contact between the Mashco Piro people and other indigenous communities is slowly peeling back the layers of secrecy that have shielded them from industrialised society.

Members of the tribe have been spotted a record 100 times already this year, Peru's deputy culture minister Patricia Balbuena said.

While others have even left the forest and now live among the neighbouring Yine Indians, who speak a similar language.

They were very curious and tentative. That’s why it took them so long for the whole group to emerge from their hiding place in the forest. The men came out first and watched us for a long time, and that’s when the women and children came out Professor Jean-Paul van Belle

Campaign groups claimed the government’s response to the issue has been slow and inadequate, as the Mashco Piro’s habitat in the forest has been taken over by loggers, drug cartels and tourists.

‘Clearly the Mashco Piro want to continue receiving some of the goods they have become accustomed to receiving from outsiders,’ continued Ms Spooner.

‘But this does not mean they desire sustained contact or have any plan to settle permanently in the area, despite the huge amount of pressure for them to do so.’

The vast area over which the tribe wanders is relatively easy to access, as a fairly well-known tourist route into the Manu National Park.

The tribe tends to occupy one side of the Madre de Dios river, which runs through the park.

Jean-Paul van Belle, a professor at the University of Cape Town, took previously unpublished photos of the Mashco Piro while on a tour of the Amazonian rainforest in 2011.

The incredible pictures were captured from 250 metres away, through the lens of a telescope the professor was using to spot birds, after attending a conference in Peru.

Professor Belle couldn’t believe his eyes when members of the tribe, one of just 100 uncontacted tribes in the world, began emerging on the opposite bank of the river, clutching bows and arrows.

‘The first thing the guide did was get us as far away from the tribe as possible,’ the professor told MailOnline.

‘We were incredibly lucky to see them they are the most amazing pictures I’ve taken in my life.

‘They were very curious and tentative. That’s why it took them so long for the whole group to emerge from their hiding place in the forest. The men came out first and watched us for a long time, and that’s when the women and children came out.

‘They must have had ways of interacting with each other that we couldn’t detect, because the men must have told the others that it was safe to come out, but we didn’t notice any signals.

‘They didn’t seem particularly afraid of us, they just stared and us as we stared at them. And that went on for two hours.’

Killed: Shaco Flores (left) was killed by the tribe in 2011. He had built up a relationship with them over 20 years. The tribe uses weapons such as lances and bows and arrows (right) to attack

Pictured: Shaco Flores, a Matsigenka Indian, (pictured far left) is believed he was killed for trying to persuade the tribe to give up their nomadic way of life

Survival International described the photographs, some of which were released in 2011, as ‘the most detailed sightings of uncontacted Indians ever recorded on camera.’

Thanks to encounters like these, the tribe’s secrets are slowly emerging.

Their temporary camps have been photographed, so researchers now know more about how their huts are built and how they live.

As a nomadic tribe, the Mashco Piro – also known as Mascho Piro - move around the forest regularly.

But researchers studying the tribe have been able to monitor their movements and discover routes they tend to follow at points in the year.

Any physical contact with the Mashco Piro, or the exchange of items of clothing or other goods puts their lives in immediate danger Rebecca Spooner, International Survival

For example, the tribe started to appear on the riverbanks in search of turtle eggs during the dry season when the turtles lay, explained Ms Spooner. In the rainy season they would retreat into the forest to hunt.

Tourists desperate for a glimpse of the elusive tribe have tried to tempt them from their shelter, with offers of food, clothes, tools and even beer.

But contact with industrialised society could mean disaster for them, as their immune systems have never developed to fight against modern diseases.

Just one of the tribe catching a cold could wipe out the entire community.

‘Any physical contact with the Mashco Piro, or the exchange of items of clothing or other goods puts their lives in immediate danger,’ said Ms Spooner.

‘Uncontacted tribes do not have immunity to common diseases and up to half a tribe can be decimated following first contact within a very short period of time.

‘That is why this situation is so critical, and why we are campaigning to protect the land and ensure the Mashco Piro have the choice to make contact if they want it, and to remain uncontacted if that is what they choose.’

Logging, oil and gas exploration, drug-traffickers and common illnesses are threatening the tribe and their ancestral land, and taking the decision whether or not to interact with modernised society out of their hands.

Hunter-gatherers: Tourists and missionaries have tried to lure the tribe out of hiding with gifts of clothes, food and even beer. But any contact with the outside world could be lethal to the whole tribe

Under threat: Members of the Mashco Piro tribe on the banks of the Madre de Dios river, which runs through their ancestral land, the Manu National Park

Nomadic: The Mashco Piro tribe are a nomadic society, and so move around the rainforest a lot. But the increased number of sightings has allowed researchers to study their movements and track their routes

The Manu National Park is their ancestral territory, and is protected by two laws that have been brought in by the Peruvian government to protect their rights.

A national Peruvian law has also been created that specifically upholds uncontacted tribal peoples’ rights to remain uncontacted, and protects their lands from outsiders. But despite these laws, the land still appears to be under threat from the 21st-century.

‘So much of the land inhabited by uncontacted tribes has been invaded by illegal loggers, gold miners, oil companies, missionaries and colonists that they are feeling the squeeze all over Peru,’ continued Ms Spooner.

‘Some other groups have recently come into contact for the first time with outsiders and told how their houses had been burnt and their families shot at by suspected drug-traffickers.’

The situation between the Peruvian government and the Mashco Piro people has been teetering on a knife edge for some time.

Curious: The tribespeople have been coming into the open more often as pressures on their land and food sources increase. They have been spotted three times already in this year, which is an unprecedented amount

Ancestral lands: The Mashco Piro tribe has lived in the Manu National Park, near the border between Peru and Brazil, for more than 600 years, but logging, drug-trafficking and oil and gas exploration are encroaching on their lands

‘The government have claimed that there are no threats to the Mashco Piro’s land following overflights of the area,’ added Ms Spooner.

‘However, it is impossible to know what pressures there are inside the park without speaking to the people themselves.’

Members of the tribe have been spotted in the open three times already this year, an unprecedented number, while others have even left the forest and now live among the neighbouring Yine Indians, who speak a very similar dialect.