How a French Foreign Legion soldier dramatically escaped Colombian captors

A French Foreign Legion soldier overpowered one of his Colombian captors and then jumped into a river with his hands tied in a dramatic escape from a guerrilla group that reads like the plot of a thriller. A senior Colombian military source told AFP on Tuesday how Jose Melo Charry made it to safety after nearly a month captive at the hands of drug-trafficking rebels. Read moreFrench Foreign Legion soldier kidnapped in Colombia Melo Charry, a Colombian citizen, was on leave in his homeland when he was abducted in southwestern Narino department on August 6 by a dissident faction of the defunct FARC guerrilla group. He escaped by asking to be taken to the bush to relieve himself. Once he was away from the rebel camp, he wrestled with his guard, immobilised him and took his rifle. He still hand his hands bound but jumped into a river and managed to free himself, the military source related. The soldier, who is in his mid-thirties, then walked for four days through a region of the Colombian Andes that is bristling with armed groups before locating a police station where he sought help. Along the way, he stopped to eat at a farmer's house but was fearful that the family would betray him ...