A BRITISH student who went missing in South America at the beginning of the month lay injured in dense jungle for three weeks after falling from a path.

Luke Dance, 19, from Crawley, West Sussex, was three days into a lone journey through subtropical jungle when he slipped off the trail. Unable to climb back up to the path in the remote Yonga region of Bolivia he made for a nearby river and tried to cross at a waterfall. Suffering from several sprains and bruises, he slipped and fell a further 15ft into a fast-flowing river.

The student, who has been promised a place at Sandhurst when he finishes university, pulled himself out of the treacherous water and tried to attract the attention of passing hikers and aircraft by using his mirror to reflect the light.

Failing to get any response, he stayed on the river bank for 19 days, desperately trying to keep warm and conserve his food and water supplies.

Twenty-two days into his trip, with his family in England becoming frantic with worry, he decided that if he did not attempt to get help he would starve to death. Battered and exhausted, he managed to climb slowly back up the waterfall. He struggled for two days through the jungle to a small village where he was able to buy food and water.

Mr Dance, who is taking management studies at Loughborough University, then calmly got on a bus to La Paz, Bolivia, and was recognised by two policemen who helped him to the British Embassy.

As he fought his way through the jungle his father, Michael, set off from his home near Littlehampton, West Sussex, to join an international search involving authorities in Bolivia, Peru and Chile.

At his home in Sussex, his mother, Lynn Coleman, said yesterday: “We have spoken to Luke on the telephone today. He seemed fine but was a little hungry and bewildered. He’s a little bit battered and bruised. He told me he slipped off the track and fell down the mountainside. He said he couldn’t climb back up and it just took him that long to find his way back to civilisation.”

The alarm was raised when Luke failed to meet up with friends in Lima, Peru, after originally leaving La Paz.

His father, who had an emotional reunion with his son at the weekend, had set up a website to help in the search. He also asked Internet cafés in the region to put up Luke’s photograph. Luke had sent his last e-mail to his family from La Paz on August 29, two days before starting the jungle trek, which was supp

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