Culture clash: Man flees Kyrgyzstan over horse’s private parts post.

OUTRAGE: Mine worker from Perthshire tells how he had to flee from Kyrgyzstan

A Perthshire man who sparked a diplomatic incident in Kyrgyzstan by comparing a local dish to a horse’s penis had to be smuggled away in the back of an ambulance.

Mine worker Michael McFeat said weapon-wielding thugs tried to run him off the road as he fled the former Soviet country in fear for his life.

The 39-year-old from Abernethy caused national outrage when he compared the chuchuk sausage – a hugely popular local delicacy – to a horse’s private parts.

His co-workers at the Kumtor gold mine were so enraged by his comment on social media they called a strike and demanded he be arrested for race hate crimes.

Mr McFeat revealed how a harrowing nine-hour escape ended with him being arrested at the airport and warned by police his comment could have started a war between Britain and Kyrgyzstan.

Now back home with wife Amanda and two children, Abbie, eight, and Logan, five, Mr McFeat said: “I’m just relieved to be back in one piece.”

Mr McFeat’s troubles began when he shared a picture of his work colleagues enjoying a “fantastic Hogmanay feast” at a party in the mine’s canteen.

He added the caption: “The Kyrgyz people queuing out of the door for their special delicacy the horse’s penis!!!”.

Just after lunchtime on January 2, he was frogmarched from his work site to the mine safety office.

Mr McFeat said: “I was told my post had caused an uprising and there was a lynch mob of hundreds coming to get me, so they needed me off the site for my own safety.”

Because there are layers of security checkpoints at the mine, Mr McFeat had to be smuggled out in an ambulance.

“I lay in the back for four hours before they got the all-clear to get me through the gates without stopping,” he said.

The ambulance travelled 12 miles along a dirt track then Mr McFeat was transferred to a 4x4 driven by two security men.

He was told he was being taken to the capital Bishkek but just outside the town of Balykchy they were ambushed by two car-loads of locals.

“They were ramming us, trying to kill us,” he said.

“They ended up chasing us all around the town.”

The security guards threw Mr McFeat out of the car in an industrial estate.

“It was pitch black and I could hear cars screeching around looking for me,” he said.

“I didn’t know if I’d be rescued or if I’d been left to die.”

About 45 minutes later Mr McFeat got a text from the mine asking where he was and more security was sent.

He was taken to Bishkek’s airport but was arrested by armed police as he approached passport control.

Mr McFeat was handcuffed and held under racial hatred laws in Karakol, 80 miles north of the mine.

Officers forced him to make an apology in writing and in front of a TV camera. The following day he appeared in court.

He said: “That’s when I really began to panic because I’d been told I could go to jail for five years.”

Mr McFeat is now banned from entering Kyrgyzstan for five years.

Michael McFeat, top, of Abernethy, was arrested at Manas Airport, above left, near Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan following his online joke about one of the country’s favourite dishes, chuchuk sausage, above right.