Missing explorer Benedict Allen's children 'seriously worried'

The wife of British explorer Benedict Allen has said their three children are "seriously worried" about their father.

Mr Allen has not been heard from since he was dropped by helicopter into the remote jungle of Papua New Guinea three weeks ago.

He had been trying to reach the Yaifo, a reclusive tribe that he had met on a similar trip about three decades ago.

His wife Lenka Allen told the Daily Mail their children - 10-year-old Natalya, Freddie, seven, and two-year-old Beatrice - regularly ask when their father is coming home.

Mrs Allen told the newspaper: "The little one, Beatrice, is always saying 'Daddy' and she's trying to telephone him on my mobile, looking at his photo on the screen.

"They all sense the tension in the flat and they are worried deep down.

"The two other ones, they are saying: 'When is daddy coming so we can go shopping, just me and you, and Daddy can babysit', that sort of thing. But of course now they know he's in danger, they are seriously worried."

She added that "everything possible" is going through her head, fearing he had been bitten by a snake, got lost or contracted an illness - but added: "He does know a lot about the jungle."

Mr Allen, 57, has no phone or GPS service but was expected back in Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby on Sunday for a flight to Hong Kong, where he was due to give a speech to the Royal Geographic Society.

His most recent Twitter post on 11 October read: "Marching off to Heathrow. I may be some time (don't try to rescue me, please - where I'm going in PNG you won't ever find me you know...)"

On Wednesday, his sister, Katy Pestille, told Sky News that it was the second time he had gone missing .

She recalled: "When he was younger he went from the mouth of the Amazon to the mouth of the Orinoco, through all this uncharted terrain. He was the first person to do that. It's a long, long way and he was absent for six months and missing for three, so we've been through all this before.

"Not knowing where he was for three months was really, really awful. This was when he was about 22. Our parents were alive then and it was agony at the time.

"We are just sitting and waiting and just hoping that he'll just walk out of a bush, which is what happened last time."