World News 25-09-2003 Kidnapped Brit Escapes From Jungle who: Kidnapped Brit Matthew Scott what: Found safe after escaping from captors where: Colombia when: Yesterday snippet: "A British teenager kidnapped while trekking in the Colombian jungle has been recounting his dramatic escape from his captors," says The Independent. "Matthew Scott, 19, from Clapham, south London, fled into the jungle hours after he was kidnapped with seven other backpackers 12 days ago." The gap year student suffered exhaustion, dehydration and sunburn. He survived without food and drank only river water "but is now recovering at an army base in northern Colombia," says the BBC. "The army is hunting the other hostages - British, Israeli, Spanish and German - snatched at the [Ciudad Perdida] Lost City ruins." Matthew "gave his rebel captors the slip by leaping down a ravine as they trekked through thick forest," says The Sun. "He then walked for two days through dense undergrowth in the Sierra Nevada mountains," says The Times. He was "extremely weak and hungry and was vomiting constantly" when he was rescued by members of the "long-haired" Kogui tribe who fed him "a soup made with beans and a little salt and three oranges". The whereabouts of fellow Briton Mark Henderson, 31, and the six other foreign tourists are not known but Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has blamed the Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army for the kidnap. More than 1,000 soldiers are involved in the search. [... more]

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