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Journalists Freed From Captivity In Tripoli

Benjamin Gottlieb |
August 24, 2011 | 10:15 a.m. PDT

Senior News Editor

CNN Senior Correspondent Matthew Chance was one of three-dozen journalists freed from the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on Wednesday (Via Creative Commons).
CNN Senior Correspondent Matthew Chance was one of three-dozen journalists freed from the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on Wednesday (Via Creative Commons).
Three dozen foreign journalists held captive by Gaddafi's forces for five days in a Tripoli hotel were freed Wednesday after their captors caught word that the city had fallen under rebel control.

The situation evolved over the weekend, as journalists from the BBC, CNN, Reuters and other international news organizations became stuck inside the Rixos Hotel in the Libyan capital during a skirmish between rebels and Gaddafi-loyalists.

The BBC's Matthew Price was one of those trapped in the hotel. He said the entire foreign press corps was held at gunpoint by two, nervous Gaddafi loyalists for days, who both weilded Kalashnikovs and refused to give up their posts.

Price's full account can be seen here.

CNN Senior Correspondent Matthew Chance -- one of the journalists held captive -- said the Gaddafi loyalists holding the journalists capitve "essentially just capitulated" after realizing rebels were taking the city, CNN reported.

He tweeted the entire escape, which can be viewed below:

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