Relatives of missing Sussex backpacker Luke Dance were celebrating today after he turned up safe and well last night.

Luke, a 19-year-old university student from Worth, Crawley, went missing after leaving fellow backpackers in Bolivia on August 29 for a four-day solo jungle trek.

The last contact the family had was when he emailed his father Michael, 48, of Climping, near Littlehampton, that night.

Luke was thought to have been trekking through the sub-tropical jungle in the Yonga region of Bolivia before travelling by bus to Arequipa in south Peru.

Today his father, an area manager for BOC based at Southampton, flew out to be reunited with his son in La Paz, Bolivia.

Luke turned up at the British Embassy in the city last night.

He is expected home in the next few days and will be returning to Loughborough University, where he is studying management science.

He has been accepted for Army training at Sandhurst after he has completed his degree course.

Today a Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are very happy that Luke has been found safe and well."

Luke was found on a bus just outside La Paz by Bolivian police and taken to the British embassy after getting lost in the jungle.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said he had managed to find a bus to La Paz and was recognised by Bolivian police at a checkpoint just outside the town, thanks to posters put up by British Embassy staff.

The police took him to the embassy where he was being reunited with his father. Luke is expected home in the next few days.

Today a Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are very happy that Luke has been found safe and well. We are very grateful to embassy staff in Bolivia, Peru and Chile for the efforts they made to find Luke."