Ecuador Kidnapping: British Woman Rescued

Two women, a Briton and an Australian, have been rescued near Ecuador's border with Colombia a day after they were kidnapped.

Officials have named them as 23-year-old Briton as Kathryn Sara Cox and the 32-year-old Australian as Fiona Louise Wilde.

Police and armed forces rescued the pair who are "in good condition", according to Ecuador's interior minister Jose Serrano.

It appears the women were abandoned by their kidnappers as they were found by their rescuers disoriented at a farm.

The women were abducted while visiting the Cuyabeno nature reserve in the Tarapoa region, in Sucumbios province, officials said.

They were travelling in a canoe as part of a group of seven tourists - five foreigners and two Ecuadorans - and two local Ecuadorans working as guides. The other foreigners were not kidnapped.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: "We are grateful to the Ecuadorean authorities for recovering Kathryn and her companion, and are working with them to establish the facts of what happened and who was responsible."

Australia's foreign ministry said its embassy in Chile was "working urgently with Canadian and British authorities in Ecuador to obtain more information", and officials were also in contact with the Australian's family.

Ecuador's environment ministry has quoted local people as saying that three members of a Colombian gang of ex-paramilitary fighters known as the Black Eagles were behind the abduction. Kidnappings are common among Colombian gangs.

The FCO currently advises against all travel to the areas immediately bordering Colombia in Carchi province due to criminal activity and organised crime.