A teenage charity volunteer and a journalist from The Argus have returned to Britain after a dramatic escape from a rebel uprising in the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka.

Frankie Taggart, 30, an assistant news editor with the paper, was covering a visit by 17-year-old Steyning schoolgirl Rhiannon Stuart-Jones, who raised thousands of pounds for victims of the Boxing Day tsunami, when they were placed under curfew by fighters from the the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Their delegation, which included Rhiannon's, were stranded in their guest house in the east coast town of Batticaloa when the LTTE warned of violent reprisals for anyone caught out in public.

But they were smuggled out of the danger zone and made it to Colombo airport after an arduous eight-hour cross-country drive.

Rhiannon, of Goring Road, Steyning, told The Argus after arriving at Heathrow Airport: "I would not have missed this trip for the world but I am glad to be home.

"I'm absolutely exhausted and I think if I had been more awake, I would have been more scared."

Mr Taggart, radio reporter Amy Lewis, Rhiannon and her father, broadcaster Nick Stuart-Jones, 46, had been invited by Cafod to view the agency's work in the Batticaloa district, one of the areas worst-hit by the tsunami.

They were preparing to leave the country at 8.30am local time on Friday when the LTTE announced the curfew following a week of violent clashes with Government troops in the rebel-held northern peninsula of Jaffna.

Mr Taggart said: "We had effectively been placed under house arrest along with the local population and every other foreigner across large swathes of the east coast.

"We were well looked-after by Cafod, who knew what they were doing and had decided it wasn't safe for us to leave our guest house.

"But that meant there was a good chance we would miss our flight home and possibly even the next flight. After taking advice on the security situation from the UN, Cafod decided the best plan of action would be wait until well after dark before leaving because it would be less likely that we would encounter the Tamil Tigers."

The group made their escape bid at 3am after a 19-hour wait in their guest house and headed for Colombo.

Mr Taggart said: "We were more apprehensive than scared because we just didn't know what to expect. Our translator had told us that protesters had ambushed and stoned vehicles in the past.

"There are Government roadblocks at regular intervals on the way out of Batticaloa and there are still land mines around which were laid during the civil war.

"But as it turned out, our course of action had been the right one and we managed to get out of the trouble spots without encountering the LTTE.

"We were stopped and questioned by Government soldiers but Cafod had supplied us with a local aid worker with all the right paperwork so we were ushered through.

"In the end, we managed to get the flight that had been scheduled for us and we are all just glad to be back in one piece after more than 40 hours with almost no sleep."

The group had been delayed by 24 hours on their way into Batticaloa after protesters alleging violence against the muslim population by Tamils announced a general strike and curfew.

Rhiannon said: "That scared me a lot because it suddenly seemed to be getting quite real and quite scary."