Australian backpacker is recovering in a Peruvian hospital after being shot in the stomach by a cab driver.

Elizabeth 'Lilly' Littlewood was on the way to the airport in the nation’s capital of Lima last Thursday to catch a flight back to Newcastle when the cabbie demanded money and opened fire.

Her father, Rex, who rushed to his 26-year-old daughter’s bedside from Australia after the shooting, told The Daily Telegraph today that his daughter and her boyfriend were on the final leg of a month-long trip through Peru when the shooting happened.

The pair left their hotel and jumped in a taxi from a cab rank but shortly after getting in the driver started demanding money.

 “She assumed he wanted her to get out of the cab so she tried the door handle several times and that’s when he shot her,” Mr Littlewood said.



The bullet entered Lilly’s stomach and lodged near her spine, but the pair managed to escape.

Doctors later discovered the bullet had missed vital organs by just a few centimetres.

“She’s very lucky,” Mr Littlewood said.

“She is in hospital about 150m away from where I am right now and she’s recuperating pretty well.”

Police later arrested the cabbie after findingmost of Ms Littlewood’s luggage and travel documents still in his possession.

Ms Littlewood, a former student at Mount View High School in the Hunter Valley, is expected to be well enough to travel home within a fortnight.