Colombia hostages freed at last

The freed hostages appeared in good health

Colombian rebels have freed five hostages - four Israelis and a Briton.

The leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) handed over Israelis Beni Daniel, Ortaz Ohayon, Ido Guy and Erez Altawil and Briton Mark Henderson to mediators.

They appeared in good health as they got into helicopters at a handover site in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

They were among eight hostages taken on 12 September; a German and a Spaniard were freed last month, while a British man escaped soon after the captures.

"I'm enthused, ecstatic, content - all the synonyms of the word happy," said Mr Altawil, 24.

"I would like to thank everyone who made our release possible."

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Dozens of rebel gunmen supervised the release, which followed months of negotiations facilitated by the Roman Catholic Church.

The five foreigners were flown by helicopter to Bogota on Monday and were expected to fly to their home countries within the next couple of days.

In Britain, the parents of 32-year-old Mark Henderson were delighted their son would be home in time for Christmas.

"I can't believe it, it's like a dream," said Mr Henderson's mother, Sharelle. "I feel sheer joy and just want to speak to him."

Mr Henderson appeared in good spirits, telling reporters he felt, "Fine. Absolutely fine".

"At the moment it's just all a bit confusing and overwhelming," he said in Valledupar, before flying to Bogota.

He said he and the other hostages had been forced to walk for up to 18 hours a day but otherwise had been treated well.

The hostages had been held since September

"I wouldn't say that we had been treated badly... sometimes there were problems we didn't want to walk, we were forced to walk a lot. It's very painful, we didn't know what we were walking for."

In Bogota, the mother of 22-year-old Israeli hostage Ortaz Ohayon was able to speak to her son on a cell phone after his release.

"Everything is okay. He said, 'Mommy, I love you," Tami Ohayon told the Associated Press news agency.

The BBC's Jeremy McDermott said the humanitarian commissioner who had received the hostages indicated they had walked to the helicopter unaided, but would still get a full health check.

They had been moved from separate locations through the Sierra Nevada mountains to a pick-up point.

The hostages had been seized at gunpoint near the spectacular 2,500-year-old Ciudad Perdida (Lost City) Indian ruins.

Earlier releases

The rebels said they kidnapped the men to publicise the persecution of Indian villagers by rightwing paramilitaries, and not for a ransom.

The ELN and other rebel groups are holding hundreds of Colombian hostages at any given time.

Another Briton, Matthew Scott, 19, also taken with the group, escaped within two days, while Asier Huegun of Spain and Reinhilt Weigel of Germany were released on 24 November.

Speaking from his family home in London, Mr Scott said: "I am just so relieved. There have been a few false starts and the ELN are not to be trusted.