A US teenager abducted by Islamist militants in the Philippines for five months escaped by telling his captors he was going for a bath in a stream before wandering barefoot through the jungle for two days to freedom.
Kevin Eric Lunsmann is photographed talking to Mayor Celso Lobregat in southern island of Mindanao Kevin Lunsmann, 14, tricked his four armed captors, suspected of being linked to al-Qaeda, that he planned to bathe in a stream on Friday before taking his chance make a bolt from their clutches.
The boy followed the river down a mountain and walked for two days without shoes before he was discovered by villagers on the island of Basilan, though at first he feared they might be sympathetic to his Abu Sayyaf captors.
After a brief chase the villagers convinced the boy, who was exhausted, hungry and in shock, that they meant him no harm and his ordeal was finally over late on Saturday.
"He was in fear, so there was a bit of a chase before the villagers convinced him that they were friends," said police Senior Supt Edwin de Campo, adding that he had bruises on his arms and feet but was otherwise fine.
Harry Thomas, the US ambassador to the Philippines, said the boy had talked with his family by phone and would be reunited with them shortlyread more
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