UK hostage feared for his life 'for 680 days'

London - A Scottish oil worker kidnapped by South American guerillas for almost two years arrived back in Britain on Monday, saying his time as a hostage was "like Groundhog Day".

"I feared for my life, for 680 days," said Alistair Taylor, 47, who was abducted in Colombia by the rebel National Liberation Army in August 1999.

"The easiest way to describe my time there is to say it was like Groundhog Day. It was frightening at times, but I just had to sit it out and wait. That's all I could do. I got through it with determination and stubbornness," said Taylor at London's Gatwick airport.

Taylor apparently referred the movie Groundhog Day, in which the hero is doomed to repeat one day over and over.

Taylor, who works for Weatherford International, a Texas-based oil company, was taken hostage on August 27, 1999, in the eastern town of Yopal, an oil centre near the border with Venezuela.

He was travelling to work in a taxi when two other taxis cut the vehicle off and men got out and grabbed him.

In April this year, a video recording by freelance journalist Karl Penhaul was screened by the BBC, confirming Taylor's survival in the jungle.

He was released late on Thursday to a hostage negotiator.

The rebels had reportedly been asking $3-million (about R25-million) for his release.

Arriving at Gatwick airport on Monday after a 13-hour flight from Bogota via Caracas, accompanied by his brother, Charlie, Taylor looked fit but tired.

He said he knew nothing about a ransom, claiming he was simply told to leave the camp in which he was being held.

"I thought we were moving between two camps. It feels very good to be back. It just feels so nice.

"I'd like to thank everyone at the British embassy, who helped get me back and organised everything," said Taylor, who has a Colombian wife, Martha Valencia, and four-year-old son, Alecito.

Taylor was one of four foreigners being held hostage in Colombia, according to Juan Francisco Mesa, the country's top anti-kidnapping official.

With more than 3 700 reported abductions, Colombia has the world's highest kidnapping rate.

The majority are committed by leftist guerrillas looking for ransoms to help finance a nearly four-decade-old civil war.

Most abductions are carried out like a business. Rebels hold their hostages until they feel they have been offered the best price they can get. - Sapa-AP