'I saw a chance and I ran'

Kidnapped Matthew Scott saw his chance to escape as the mists descended in the Colombian jungle.

His opportunity came 10 days after being captured by guerrillas with a group of fellow tourists visiting the ruins of the Lost City.

"We were walking in a line with the guerrillas," said the 19-year-old gap-year student from Clapham.

He added: "It was raining in the mountains, the visibility wasn't good. The sides were very steep. I heard the river on the right hand and I followed the sound.

"I jumped off a cliff very quickly. I was lucky to not have broken my arms and legs."

Matthew stumbled through the jungle for two days without eating anything until he was found on Tuesday morning by Indians living high in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

From there he was picked up by a Colombian army patrol and flown by helicopter to a military hospital in Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast.

He said: "The tribe that found me gave me soup and beans with a little salt and three oranges.

"Those are the only things I've eaten in the last 12 days. I drank only water."

Speaking in broken Spanish, Matthew, who suffered cuts and bruises during his ordeal, said the remaining seven hostages, including fellow Mark Henderson from North Yorkshire, were in poor condition.

Matthew said: "A guy from Israel has asthma, and the other people are very demoralised. They have to walk, a lot, every day, in the rain. The guerrillas weren't giving us very much food."

He said he did not know which armed group his captors belonged to. "Every person of that group said different things. Some of them say they are paramilitaries, they all say different things."

Local Indians said Matthew was "dizzy and vomiting" when they found him. One woman said: "He was very happy. He said he thought he was going to die, he said he was happy."

Another of the Kogui Indians said: "He took advantage of a moment when the kidnappers were not looking to jump into the ravine and disappear. We found him near our village. He was exhausted."

Mr Scott's father James, from Clapham, was overjoyed when told of his son's escape. Mr Scott, his wife Kate, Matthew's brother Ned and sisters Molly, Sophie and Charlotte, had been anxiously waiting for news.

Mr Scott said: "We have spoken to him and we're looking forward to seeing him. Matthew seems as well as can be expected. He's tired, he's in hospital and we are hoping he'll come back soon.

"We are all very pleased. We don't know who he has been with or how he has been living for the last few days. He said he wanted a baked potato and he said he couldn't see what the fuss was about.

"He was very sorry that he might have been a nuisance. We are looking forward to him coming back. It's been a difficult time. It does not seem real, any of it."

Mr Scott, an orthopaedic surgeon in his 60s, added he had no further news of Mr Henderson, a 31-year-old TV producer from Harrogate, or the six other tourists.

He said: "I feel very, very sad for the hostages who are still there. It's not an experience I can recommend to anyone, it's simply awful.

"I'm very, very, very sorry for the Henderson family who are completely wonderful-Mark was very kind to Matthew. All of us hope and pray that they will be found as soon as possible.

"So far as we know he has been very beautifully looked after by indigenous Indians. He's on a drip and he's got dressings on his legs in particular but he's well and we are looking forward to him coming back.

"It's a very, very. very difficult business. It's been absolutely unbearable. We have taken each day as it comes. He's got a very loving family and we are looking forward to seeing home."

Mrs Scott said: "We are just thrilled." The family held a celebration party last night at their four-storey town house for friends and family who arrived throughout the night.

The group of tourists was trekking to the Lost City, a spectacular 2,500-year-old ruin in mountainous jungle in northern Colombia.

They were part of a larger group of 15 tourists sleeping in a cabin when armed guerrillas burst in. The guerrillas selected the fittest and those with sturdy shoes and marched them away.

Mr Henderson's father Chris, 58, said: "We are delighted that one of them is now safe and we look forward to the other seven being safe as well."

Colombia's biggest rebel group, the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) group has denied responsibility for the kidnappings.

It has been in dispute with paramilitaries over the control of coca and poppy cultivation in the Sierra Nevada area and is thought to be responsible for most of the kidnappings that take place in the country.

On Tuesday, British diplomats flew over part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range to watch as hundreds of soldiers supported by a fleet of Black Hawk helicopters searched for the kidnapped tourists.

Government officials said the rebels initially took the tourist group's guide but later released him and he raised the alarm.

One of those allowed to go by the guerrillas, Mathijs Grote Beverborg, 29, from Holland, said: "I was half asleep when I heard lots of voices. Then two men in camouflage burst in holding assault rifles. I pretended not to understand, but it was clear they wanted to take us away." He said the rebels, who were aged between 18 and 20, lined up all the foreigners outside in the rain and removed their money and valuables before selecting their victims.

The military commander leading the hunt for the remaining hostages said he would be able to "readjust" the search based on Mr Scott's information.

Colombian president Alvaro Uribe has said he suspects that the kidnappers are members of a Cuban-backed National Liberation Army who use ransom money to finance their war.

"I speak every day, two or three times a day with the commanders of the (rescue) operations," said Mr Uribe. "God willing, we will be successful. The military operation is intensifying. All corridors have been closed off. The decision is to get them back alive. To return them to their families."

Getting the hostages back alive would be an important victory for Mr Uribe, whose father was killed in the early 1980s by rebels during a botched kidnapping.

Mr Uribe authorised a disastrous rescue attempt last May for a former defence minister, an elected governor and eight military personnel - -who were then shot to death by the rebels when Colombia's armed forces arrived.

More than 1,000 people have been kidnapped in Colombia since the start of the year. Alistair Taylor, an oil worker from Aberdeen, who spent almost two years in captivity said the remaining hostages would be going through "sheer hell."

He said: "They will be marched, the won't get a minute's rest. The guerrillas are going to be as scared as them.

"They need to get them hidden, the army is looking for them.

"They will be under a lot of pressure, keeping them moving."

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Bogota said they had not been told when Mr Scott might be discharged from the hospital about 435 miles north of the capital, or when he might be able to fly home to London.