A HAMPSHIRE journalist was one of three men tortured by the Libyan military in a terrifying 21-hour ordeal.

Producer Chris Cobb-Smith was part of a BBC trio who were trying to reach the besieged town of Zawiya when they were captured and subjected to beatings mock executions.

Bullets skimmed past their faces as they were threatened with death, had sub-machine guns pointed at their heads and locked in cages, leaving Chris, from Winchester, fearing the worst.

The former Barton Peveril student was captured at a checkpoint with his colleagues, Feras Killani, a Palastinian reporter with a Syrian passport and Goktay Koraltan, a Turkish cameraman and their local driver.

But Chris had managed to hide his phone and was able to get a call out to the BBC saying he and his colleague were in trouble and needed help.

He said: "We were lined up against the wall. I was the last in line - facing the wall. I looked and I saw a plain-clothes guy with a small sub-machine gun. He put it to everyone's neck. I saw him and he screamed at me "Then he walked up to me, put the gun to my neck and pulled the trigger, twice. The bullets whisked past my ear. The soldiers just laughed. Now it just feels like a bad dream."

The trio were held for 21 hours, moved to various locations, before they were released and they have since left Libya.