Australian tourists have been caught up in a US government shutdown controversy, with Yellowstone National Park rangers accused of using "Gestapo tactics" against their tour group.
Australian, Japanese, European, Canadian and US tourists were on a nine-day bus tour of western US national parks when the government stalemate closed the famed Yellowstone park.
The tourists, mostly senior citizens, claimed they were prevented from leaving a hotel in the park by armed guards.
"They looked like Hulk Hogans, armed," Pat Vaillancourt, a US tourist on the bus trip, told the Newbury Port Daily News.
"They told us you can't go outside.
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"Some of the Asians who were on the tour said, 'Oh my God, are we under arrest?' They felt like they were criminals."
The tourists' claims have made headlines across the US.
The federal government shutdown forced Yellowstone and other national parks in the US to furlough most of its employees, leaving only essential personnel such as armed law enforcement rangers.
Walking trails and other attractions in the park were closed to visitors.
Gordon Hodgson, the group's tour guide, said when the bus ventured out in Yellowstone they stopped to take photos of bison on the side of the road, but a ranger pulled up and threatened to arrest him for trespassing.
"She told me you need to return to your hotel and stay there," Hodgson told the Livingston Enterprise newspaper.
"This is just Gestapo tactics."
The park service has denied it treated visitors unprofessionally.
