�I am very proud of him, he is passionate about their human rights ... I have to take my hat off to him. He has taken up the cause and wants to highlight it to the world.�

JULIA HORTON and DAVID ROSS

"I AM very proud of him, he is passionate about their human rights ... I have to take my hat off to him. He has taken up the cause and wants to highlight it to the world."

That was a Scottish father's words yesterday upon hearing that his son has been detained outside Beijing's Olympic Stadium after staging a protest calling for China to free the Tibetan people.

As he sat in the family's home in Muir of Ord, near Inverness, fielding telephone calls from international media about Iain Thom's demonstration it was clear to Brian Thom that at the age of 24 his son has achieved his aim.

He might have travelled thousands of miles from his native land to do so, but Iain's drive and social conscience took root as he grew up in the Highlands.

And those who knew him then are not that surprised to see him now making headlines around the world for a cause he believes in fervently.

At Dingwall Academy, where he was head boy and joint dux, headmaster Graham MacKenzie remembers him well.

He said: "As soon as I heard the name I thought it must have been our Iain. He was always a bit of a character, very lively and was passionate about things. As a result he was very popular with both the other pupils and the staff.

"He is one I knew would go far, but I have to confess I didn't anticipate seeing him up a lighting pole in Beijing. However, it just shows the strength of his commitment to that cause, which is winning him the admiration of many."

Back at the Thom's home, his mother, Bettie, 54, a district nurse, put it more modestly. She said her son "stood out" at school as being "a little bit different."

She added: "But he doesn't come home and tell me to stop boiling the kettle. He is really a campaigner, rather than a protester."

A keen "green" conscience prompted Iain to enrol in a degree in environmental geo-science at Edinburgh University after he left school. It was there that he joined the Students for a Free Tibet movement, becoming a key grassroots activist as his determination to make a difference grew.

After graduating two years ago, Iain, a keen climber, visited Tibet to see the situation for himself firsthand. That experience spurred him on and it was not long before the Olympics became an obvious focus for his efforts. Yesterday's protest was not the first he has been involved in. Earlier, during the official countdown to the Games, he took time off from his job as an environmental justice officer with Friends of the Earth Scotland to travel to Mount Everest. There he helped to co-ordinate a similar banner demonstration coinciding with the arrival of the Olympic torch.

Clare Symonds, Iain's former boss at FoE Scotland, recalled: "He wanted to use the rare opportunity which this Olympics brings to speak out for the people of Tibet. He would often tell stories about what goes on there. I just hope that he will avoid the reprisals that they the Chinese authorities give to the Tibetan people because he is a westerner."

Her concerns for his safety echoed those of his parents.

They knew what his intentions were before he left, and support his bid, but cannot help but feel worried.

In between speaking to the press yesterday, Brian, who runs a small construction business, waited anxiously to hear whether the Foreign Office or the British Embassy in Beijing have managed to get in touch with his son.

He said: "The first we knew was a phone call from the Students for a Free Tibet to say the protest had gone ahead. Then about an hour later I did get a text directly from Iain just after he was detained.

"He said they were being treated well and hoped to be home soon. I was relieved to get that message and a bit surprised too but that was early this morning and we have no news since so we are slightly worried.

"They the British authorities are trying to get access to him. They did make contact with the Chinese authorities and are now making requests through official channels."

Two other SFT members were in protest action closer to home yesterday. James Murray, a 23-year-old student from Edinburgh, and Jenny Raynor, aged, 26, from Cambridge University, scaled Tower Bridge in London to display a banner that read: "Beijing 2008: Make Olympic History: Free Tibet."

Earlier this year, international attention focused on riots in Tibet as people there sought to fight their own battle. Now it is focusing on a young Scottish activist, and he is determined to use that interest to further the cause.

His message to the world, which he recorded during the demonstration with three other protestors yesterday, is clear.

"In March Tibetans took to the streets, risking everything in their calls for justice and human rights, and we stand today, with this action, in solidarity with those calls."