Family to fly to scene of outback ambush

The family of a British tourist feared to have been shot dead in an ambush in the Australian outback are preparing to fly to the scene of the attack.

Peter Falconio, 28, and girlfriend Joanne Lees, 27, were held up as they travelled in their camper van on a desert highway 175-miles north of Alice Springs.

She was trussed up and thrown into a van by the mystery attacker, but escaped by wriggling her legs free and fleeing into the outback.

But boyfriend Peter, of Hepworth, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, disappeared - and as police mounted a search for him using Aboriginal trackers - they admitted they "feared the worst".

Police have released an e-fit of the attacker.

Peter's brother Paul, 34, said he and father Luciano planned to catch a flight from Heathrow to Sydney tonight.

"We are going out to Sydney and will arrive on Wednesday morning. Presumably the authorities will take over from there and get us to Alice Springs."

He said the last few days "have been awful" for the family. He added: "My mother Joan is desperately worried but we are coping as well as could be expected."

The family learned of the horror when Joanne's parents were watching the news on Sunday.

Peter, a building surveyor, left Britain with Joanne, his girlfriend of five years, last November to go on a round-the-world trip.

They visited Thailand and Cambodia before going on to Australia where they had been touring the country in a camper van.