A kidnapped American boy who escaped from suspected Muslim militants wandered without shoes for two days in a Philippine jungle before villagers found him.
Police Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo said 14-year-old Kevin Lunsmann, of Campbell County, Virginia, told his kidnappers that he would take a bath in a stream, then ran away after five months of captivity on Basilan Island.
The boy, who was barefoot, followed a river and ran away when he saw villagers, who eventually assured him that they were friends.
Mr De Ocampo said the boy was fine except for bruises on his legs and arms.
The boy's Filipino-American mother, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, was freed two months ago.
Kevin was recovered in Lamitan town on southern Basilan Island, a stronghold of al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf rebels who are believed to be behind the kidnapping, said military spokesman Lt Col Randolph Cabangbang.
He was now safe in military custody, he said, without offering other details.
US ambassador Harry Thomas said the boy would be reunited with his family soon.
"In this holiday season nothing makes me happier than knowing that an innocent victim is returned to his family in time for holiday celebrations," Mr Thomas said.
"I also want to acknowledge the courage of Kevin himself, and his family, throughout this long ordeal."
He said there would be a "speedy investigation and prosecution of all those involved in the kidnapping of American citizens."
Kevin's mother was freed after she was dropped off by boat at a wharf on Basilan. Their cousin, Romnick Jakaria, dashed to freedom last month when Philippine special forces managed to get near an Abu Sayyaf camp in the mountains of Basilan.
They were believed to be held for ransom, but Lt Col Cabangbang did not say whether any was paid.
The three were on holiday with relatives on an island near Zamboanga city when they were snatched on July 12 and taken by boat to nearby Basilan. The captors then called the family in Virginia to demand a ransom.
The US and Philippine governments did not pay any ransom for the mother's release, interior secretary Jessie Robredo said in October, adding that he was unaware whether any private group did.
Ransom kidnappings have long been a problem in the impoverished region and are blamed mostly on the Abu Sayyaf, a group on a list of US terrorist organisations and notorious for beheadings and bombings over the past two decades.
Its stated goal has been the establishment of an Islamic state in the southern Philippines, home to minority Muslims in the predominantly Christian nation.
The Abu Sayyaf was founded on Basilan in the 1990s as an offshoot of a violent Muslim uprising that has been raging for decades.
Hundreds of US troops have been stationed in the southern Philippines, including Basilan, to train and equip Philippine forces but are prohibited from engaging in local combat.
On Monday, suspected militants abducted Australian Warren Richard Rodwell, 53, from his seaside house in Zamboanga Sibugay province, near Basilan, but it was not immediately confirmed if they also belonged to the Abu Sayyaf.
The militants are also holding an Indian, a Malaysian and a Japanese.