A British tourist kidnapped at gunpoint in Ecuador while visiting a remote nature reserve in the Amazon jungle has been rescued.
Kathryn Cox, 29, was abducted on Friday while travelling by canoe with a tour group through the Cuyabeno nature reserve in the Tarapoa region of Ecuador, close to the Colombian border.
A 32-year-old Australian woman, named locally as Fiona Louise Wilde, was also kidnapped.
They were held for little more than 24 hours before being rescued by a 100-strong team from the Ecuadoran army.
The two women are understood to have been travelling in a group of seven other tourists – five foreigners and two Ecuadorians – and two local tour guides.
After only 15 minutes into their journey their canoes were set upon by three men with guns.
Ecuador’s interior ministry said special military teams were sent to the area in a bid to find the kidnapped women, eventually locating them on Saturday afternoon at a local farm. But the kidnappers had fled, according to reports.
Ms Wilde told Sky News: “We were very scared but we could often hear the helicopters above us and that was very comforting while we were in the jungle.
“When the helicopters got right above us, the kidnappers made us hide under bushes. The kidnappers got scared.
“They were, we think, close to maybe killing us. And then for some reason they changed their minds and told us to run.
“We ran out towards the helicopters yelling, trying to get their attention.
“One of the guys who rescued us got on a motorcycle and notified authorities and within 10 minutes there was 100 army people. We were surrounded and taken and felt very safe very quickly.
“The response was beyond our wildest dreams. We didn’t think anyone was looking for us.”