A kidnapped soccer star has been rescued after a shootout between police and kidnappers in the Ecuadorian jungle

An Ecuadorian soccer star who was held hostage for three days has been rescued after a firefight broke out between police and his captors in a forest near Colombia.

Pedro Perlaza, 33, a defender of the Delfin club, was released along with another person, the police announced Wednesday evening on social media.

She had been missing since Sunday evening.

In a social media post on Thursday, police said three suspects were arrested and demanded $60,000 for their release.

A video released by police on Thursday shows two kidnapped men — both barefoot — thanking their rescuers.

“They were treated badly, but they are alive,” Diego Velastegui, the police chief in the northwestern port of Esmeraldas, told reporters.

Police “were met with live ammunition” near the coastal town of Atacames, he said. The kidnappers fled after the police returned fire. Velastegui said many of the hostages were injured.

Perlaza was kept in a wooden shack built on logs, tucked away in a wooded area, according to aerial footage.

Perlaza was capped three times by the national team in 2020 and has spent his entire career with Ecuadorian teams.

He was crowned in 2019 with Delfin and in 2022 with Aucas.

The tragedy comes a few weeks after the Ecuadorian footballer Marco Angulo died from injuries sustained in a car accident.

In recent years, Ecuador has experienced a wave of violence related to drug trafficking.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from six per 100,000 people in 2018 to 47 in 2023.

Kidnappings, robberies, murders and executions in prisons have become commonplace in a country that was once considered an island of peace in Latin America.

In September, the director of the largest prison in Ecuador, Maria Daniela Icaza, became you have been killed in an armed attack. The country’s prisoners have been under military rule since January, when President Daniel Noboa announced a a state of “internal armed conflict” after a brutal wave of violence, caused by the prison break of a powerful crime boss.

In January, the gunmen stormed in and opened fire in the TV studio and the criminals threatened to kill civilians and security forces indiscriminately. The prosecutor investigating the beating was later he was shot dead.