BRITONS FLEE RED ARMY’S BATTLE ZONE

UK Express
Wednesday August 13,2008
UK

Georgian children carrying bundles of family possessions flee the
city of Gori – Photo

By Mark Reynolds in London and Will Stewart in Moscow Have your say(0)
A TERRIFIED group of British tourists found themselves directly in
the path of the advancing Russian army, it emerged yesterday.

As Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called a halt to military action,
it was revealed how the Britons, on a walking holiday in Georgia,
had to flee for their lives from the Red Army.

The 11 men and women, aged between 31 and 59, were finishing a 10-day
mountain trip on Saturday and were completely oblivious to the outbreak
of a war that has cost more than 2,000 lives.

As they descended from a mountain, the party suddenly came into mobile
phone contact from people in the city of Kutaisi – and were stunned
to learn the entire Red Army was fast heading their way.

Jonny Bealby, of travel company Wild Frontiers, said: "Sometimes we
have to get people out of tricky situations – but I’ve never had to
deal with a full advancing army before."

One of the group, engineer Ross Bishop, 31, from Preston, Lancs,
told how their phones started ringing as they reached a remote village.

He said: "When we drove towards the border we saw military transport
carrying troops. It’s a new one for me, being on holiday in a war
zone."

They were driven through the mountains in 4x4s and a minibus then
took them to safety in Armenia. Most flew home yesterday.

Mr Bealby said: "The party would not have known much about the war
until they got to Kutaisi. At that stage the fighting wasn’t as
serious as it became. But we knew from our experience of that region
that the city of Gori was a possible target.