British explorer Benedict Allen killed his dog and ate it to survive when lost in the Amazon

Mr Allen disappeared in 1982 when he was aged 22 after he was attacked by gold miners during his first trip across the Amazon

Benedict Allen in London, 2008 (Rex)

British explorer Benedict Allen killed his dog and ate it to survive when he was lost in the Amazon rainforest, he has revealed.

Mr Allen disappeared in 1982 when he was aged 22 after he was attacked by gold miners during his first trip across the Amazon.

The explorer’s canoe capsized during the ordeal, meaning all his possessions and food were lost. Mr Allen later contracted malaria after searching through the rainforest for help.

This meant the then-22-year-old was forced to kill his dog, who had been by his side as he set out for his first trip across the Amazon.

Mr Allen delivered a blow to the back of the dog’s skull using the butt of his machete and slitting its throat.

“It was a terrible, terrible thing,” he wrote in the Daily Mail. “I wouldn’t really wish it on anyone. But the fact is I had two sorts of malaria and I had to somehow get out of the forest.

“And I knew that the dog was dying and I was dying so my one chance was to kill the dog and get a bit of flesh and get a bit of food and that’s how I survived.”

The explorer told the Guardian in 2011 that the decision to eat his dog “haunted” him.

Mr Allen was rescued after disappearing again in the Amazon in 2017 and contracting malaria, but later denied he was missing.

Members the Army pose with four Indigenous children after spending more than a month lost in the Colombian Amazon rainforest (Colombian Presidency/AFP via Get)

The revelation comes as four children who survived a plane crash were found recently alive after being lost in the Colombian jungle for 40 days.

The four siblings - 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, nine-year-old Soleiny Jacobombaire Mucutuy, four-year-old Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy, and 11-month-old Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy - disappeared after a plane they were on went down in the Amazon rainforest in May.

Their mother Magdalena Mucutuy, the plane’s pilot, died in the accident.

Thirteen-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy used “survival games” to keep her and her siblings – including a baby – alive, her family said.