A spokesman for Students for a Free Tibet said Bristol University graduate Lucy Fairbrother, 23, originally from Cambridge, and Edinburgh University graduate Iain Thom, 24, of Inverness, sent text messages to family members saying they were getting on a flight to Frankfurt in Germany.

It is not known when the pair, who were arrested alongside two US activists, will return to the UK.

London-based Miss Fairbrother's mother Linda, 58, a broadcast journalist, said: "There are rumours in China that they have been released and put on planes, but we've heard nothing official."

All four of the protesters were ordered to leave China "within a prescribed time limit", according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, which reports that two were expected to leave last night and the other two today.

The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau told Xinhua in a statement: "They disrupted public order and violated Chinese laws. Their period of stay in the country will hereby be cut short according to the Law of the People's Republic of China on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens."

Sun Weide, of the Beijing Organising Committee of the 29th Olympic Games, told Xinhua he strongly disapproved of the protesters' behaviour.

He said: "We resolutely oppose such behaviour. The Olympics was a grand international sports gathering and we are resolutely against any attempts to politicise the Games.

"China has stipulated laws and regulations concerning gatherings and demonstrations. We hope foreigners who come to China can observe China's laws and regulations."

London-based Miss Fairbrother has been involved with SFT since she was a sixth-form student and was president of the group at Bristol University before graduating last summer.



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