‘I’m lucky to be alive’ - tourist

The girlfriend of a British tourist feared to have been shot dead during an ambush in the Australian outback today said she felt lucky to be alive.

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

Shortly after being flagged down by the man on the Stuart Highway in the desolate area of the Northern Territory, Miss Lees heard what she thought was a gunshot.

She was then tied up by the man and thrown into the back of a van, but managed to escape into the bush where she spent several hours hiding from the gunman before raising the alarm.

But Mr Falconio, of Hepworth, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, disappeared, and as police mounted a search for him using Aboriginal trackers, they confirmed that traces of human blood had been found at the scene.

In her first interview since the attack, Miss Lees said: ‘‘Everyone can use their imagination about what it was like for me that night, but I was determined to escape and I feel very lucky to survive.’’

Former travel agent Miss Lees, who has been under police guard since the shooting, said: ‘‘I honestly do not believe this man would have let me go. He really needs to be captured. I do not think he would hesitate to do it again.

‘‘We stopped and refuelled at Ti Tree and watched the sun set. After we had been driving again for some time, a vehicle drove up alongside us and Pete slowed down, thinking it was going to overtake us - but he drove alongside us.

‘‘His interior light was on and it was a four-wheel drive with a dog inside.

‘‘The man pointed to the back of our vehicle and motioned for us to stop.

‘‘We then stopped and he pulled up behind us. Pete got out and went to the back of our van and the two were talking amicably and I thought everything was OK.

‘‘Pete then came back to me and asked me to rev the engine so I moved to the driver’s side and revved the engine. I then heard a bang. I thought it was something to do with the fault with our Kombi.

‘‘The next thing I see, out of the back window, is him with a gun. He then came up to me and he opened the door and told me to switch off the engine and pushed me to the passenger side.

‘‘Looking back, whether we stopped or not, I believe that he would have shot our tyres or done something anyway.’’

After escaping, Miss Lees scrambled into the bush, where she evaded capture for four hours until managing to flag down a passing truck driver.

The driver, Rodney Adams, said: ‘‘What we found out there you would have trouble believing, even if you had seen her like we did.

‘‘I never want to see anything like that again. She was in an appalling state.’’

He said she threw her arms around him and asked where her boyfriend was.

‘‘She sobbed, ‘I want my mum’,’’ said Mr Adams.

Miss Lees’ stepfather Vincent James, 58, was tonight flying out to Australia to be with her.

Her mother Jennifer James, 54, from Almondbury, Huddersfield, said: ‘‘She just wants to help Peter and helping the police is the only way she can help him.

‘‘I think she’s still holding a glimmer of hope that he may still be alive.’’

But she admitted that the situation looked ‘‘bleak’’.

‘‘I just feel terrible for them (the Falconios), and I just hope there’s a glimmer of hope and a miracle. It’s just so sad.

‘‘He was like part of our family. He’s such a lovely person. He would help anybody. They were just such a lovely couple.

‘‘It’s such a relief that Joanne’s OK, but we are so worried about Peter. She’s not said a lot about what happened, she’s just so upset, and although she’s bearing up well, we haven’t pressed her because she’s trying to help the police.’’

Commander Max Pope of the Northern Territories Police said the investigation would be ‘‘stumbling’’ without Miss Lees’ help.

‘‘She has been extremely helpful (with) the information she provided yesterday to enable us to put the identikit together.

Despite searches by police, volunteers and Aborigine trackers, nothing had been found in the 900,000 kilometre expanse.

Commander Pope said the response to an e-fit of the gunman had been ‘‘excellent’’.

Dozens of calls had been received from people with information and there had also been more than 100 reports of possible sightings of the man.

Mr Falconio’s father Luciano and brother Paul, 31, flew out to Australia last night and are expected to arrive in Sydney tomorrow before catching a flight to Alice Springs where they will be met by officers from the Northern Territory Police.

Mr Falconio, a building surveyor, left Britain with Miss Lees, his girlfriend of five years, last November to go on a round-the-world trip.

The couple, who had been living in Brighton before the holiday, visited Asia before going on to Australia where they had been touring the country in a camper van.

Their orange van was found in bushland away from the Stuart Highway where the gunman had apparently driven it off the road, police said.

Helicopters, trackers and motorcyclists were continuing to search the area and fingerprint and forensic experts were also at the scene.

They were also searching vehicles at roadblocks set up between the towns of Katherine and Alice Springs.