Brit Matthew Iovane and American girlfriend Michelle Clemens were on their dream trip to Papua New Guinea when they were pounced on by painted men.

Two natives with machetes beat and stripped them before blindfolding them and leading them into the jungle, as The Sun reported.

Michelle had three fingers sliced to the bone by a machete as she fought her captors.

Matthew said: “We’d joked about the famous cannibals of Papua New Guinea’s jungle but it was no laughing matter when these men came out of the bush.

“They were totally feral and we were at their mercy. I thought we’d vanish into the jungle and never be seen again.”

Matthew said: “We were about an hour into the walk when a tribesman appeared ahead of us and another behind us.

“Our first reaction was to try to calm them and we even thought it must be some kind of a prank, but we realised very quickly that we were in a very serious situation.

“They both had machetes with huge blades and one had a long wooden spear with a crude arrowhead and they were grunting.

“I thought we were being robbed so we put down our bags and tried to calm them, saying they could take everything when they started pushing and threatening us.

“Then one turned on me, swinging his machete and began tearing at my clothes until I was stripped virtually naked. They looked fearsome and I was too terrified to fight back.”

The couple did try to escape, but fell after becoming tangled in vines and were quickly recaptured. While being held in blindfolds in a snake-infested scrub, they were then subjected to a torture game.

Matthew said: “The one in a mask punched me, tied my hands in vines and then began playing a cruel cat and mouse game with me.

“He was grunting and shouting ‘kill you’ while sliding his machete blade across my throat, then swung it towards my face. Each time he’d lift it at the last moment and chop it into the tree I was leaning against.

“I could hear Michelle was putting up a fight, but when they brought us back together I could tell she was hurt and heard her crying in pain. She said to me, ‘We have to get away, I have to get to hospital’.”

The couple finally managed to escape as they were being marched along a ridge back towards the trail.