'I wasn't scared of death'

The gap year student held hostage in the Colombian jungle told today for the first time about his remarkable escape from armed guerrillas and his 12-day ordeal as he searched for safety.

Matthew Scott, from Clapham, was finishing his travels in South America by trekking to the Lost City in Sierra Nevada when he and his party were captured by rebel forces.

As he was led along a high jungle path, he chose to take fate into his own hands and plunge into the dense jungle.

He was lost and alone for 12 days and 12 long, rain-drenched nights, without food or shelter. There were times when he hallucinated, when he questioned whether he would ever see his family and friends again and whether he would live to be older than 19.

Sometimes he was so hungry he had to eat the scabs off his bruised and battered body. He was so cold he would urinate in his trousers to enjoy the temporary warmth. He dreamed of a glass of Coca-Cola with a slice of lemon.

Matthew showed incredible courage, resourcefulness and determination. And thanks to a sturdy pair of wellington boots, a plastic sheet, a spare sock and by singing songs to keep up his morale, he survived.

Matthew told the Daily Telegraph: "I had all these thoughts. I thought I would never see my family again. But also, I thought I had had 19 pretty good years. I had enjoyed life pretty well. There was a serious possibility of death. But I wasn't scared of it, I just kept going."

He added: "I thought of all the reasons I wanted to be back in London. I never cried. I tried to cry once because I thought it might help, but I couldn't. It was just a case of setting my teeth and making myself walk, because if I was going to get out of there, it was going to be on my own two feet."

Having thrown himself off the edge of a high pass, Matthew calculated he had a few hours to make a break from the armed guerrillas.

He stripped his bag down to the bare minimum, throwing away juggling balls and his water bottle, deciding he would follow streams to safety.

All he kept was a torch, a spare sock which held cash, and the plastic sheet. He also had the clothes he was wearing - a blue T-shirt, brown trousers, swimming trunks, socks and a pair of wellingtons.

The first few hours were adrenaline-fuelled and manic. He swung from vines, ran and jumped down ledges. While he was holding a tree for balance, it came away in his hands and he cut open his chin. "It bled lots and lots" said Matthew. "Later, when I got hungry, I ripped off the scab which pulled out lots of hair, and ate it."

The 19-year old continued, day and night, crawling along streams, climbing down waterfalls and steep rockfaces in his slippery wellingtons, and eating bugs. There were no berries and he had no way of making a fire. He used the sun to judge that the river was taking him southwest, deeper into the jungle.

By day six, he said, there was no question. He was in the wrong valley. "It was then that I thought I was going to die," he said. Every day at 2pm it rained and Matthew would wrap himself in his plastic sheet. He managed only an hour's sleep a day.

By now he was racked by leg cramps, and pressure sores had developed on his feet. His toes were infected and every footstep hurt. On day seven, he saw a deserted camp - the first sign of living people in a week. He followed the tracks. The next day he saw a man, a woman and a boy. They offered to fetch help.

Matthew collapsed and waited. Four days later, Kogui Indians found him and called a military helicopter to fly him to safety.

He was suffering from mountain sickness and vomiting, he was weak and scarred. But he was a survivor.