BOGOTA, May 16 (Reuters) - A Colombian police officer kidnapped by leftist rebels nearly nine years ago said on Wednesday he escaped last month from a jungle camp where he had been held hostage with three U.S. defense contract workers and French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt.

Jhon Frank Pinchao told reporters he walked for 17 days through the jungle before he was found by a police patrol. Guerrillas from the Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC, kidnapped the three Americans in 2003 when their light aircraft crashed on a drug eradication mission.

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