A tourist on holiday in Ukraine has described how a violent gang threatened to cut off his ears and remove his kidneys unless a ransom was settled by his family.

Eren Parker says he was bundled into the back of a car as he returned to his hotel in the southern city of Odessa on April 7.

The 25-year-old claims he was then guarded day and night before his family from Croydon stumped up $16,000 and successfully secured his release.

Mr Parker, of Cornish Grove, Penge, said: “The gang said they would take my ears. They also threatened to cut out my kidneys and sell them.

“The people holding me would lose their temper when I couldn’t understand the Russian they spoke and so they beat me.

“I was terrified.”

The Foreign Office has confirmed a British national was missing in the city for a week until last Thursday (April 16).

Alerted by his Croydon-based family, the Met Police say they helped Ukrainian authorities with their investigations into the incident.

Taser attack

Describing his ordeal, unemployed Mr Parker said: “I was on the last day of my holiday and had gone to a restaurant in a casino.

“When I came out it was 5am and as I returned to my hotel in the city I was hit with a taser and thrown into the back of a car.

“They covered my eyes. I can’t remember exactly but there were about three or four men.

“I was taken to a garage and made to sit on the floor. I had no idea where I was.

“They took all my possessions.

“They told be nothing and I was sure they were going to kill me.

“I didn’t even know they were asking for money from my family. I was confused and scared.”

The keen footballer and Arsenal fan says he was moved to a flat after two days where he survived on bread, tomato sauce and mayonnaise. He said he drank only water.

During his time on the sixth floor apartment he claimed he tried to escape through a bathroom window.

He said: “I thought I could do it but I was so far up if I had jumped I would have broken my legs.

“Every 12 hours the two men guarding me would go and two more would arrive.”

He added: “I have no idea why they took me.”

$60,000 ransom

Single Mr Parker says he was suffering from shock when, last Thursday (April 16), he was taken to a hotel in the city where his sister and father were frantically trying to negotiate his release.

News of his kidnapping and a $60,000 ransom first came to light when the family received a call from a woman who allegedly helped to translate and broker a deal.

Mr Parker’s brother, 27-year-old Erol Kesen from Beckenham, says the family initially paid $5,000 but were forced to pay another $11,000 to end the ordeal.

After receiving the ransom money, the gang is understood to have released Mr Parker and handed back his passport, allowing him to fly back to the UK yesterday (April 20).

The Foreign Office admitted a British national was reported missing on April 9 in Odessa but was found “safe and well” on April 16.

But a spokesman added: “We cannot comment or speculate on whether a ransom was paid.”