journalists trapped in Tripoli's Rixos hotel Pro-Gaddafi gunmen bar more than 30 foreigners from leaving

Conditions have deteriorated sharply at the Rixos hotel in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, where more than 30 foreign journalists are trapped by fighting in the surrounding streets.

The BBC's Matthew Price gave a graphic account of life inside the five-star hotel close to Muammar Gaddafi's compound of Bab al-Aziziya taken by rebels on Tuesday, describing it as "the siege of the Rixos".

"It's a desperate situation," Price told Radio 4's Today programme. "The situation deteriorated massively overnight when it became clear we were unable to leave the hotel of our own free will … Gunmen were roaming around the corridors … Snipers were on the roof."

The 35 foreigners at the hotel are mainly British and American journalists from the BBC, Sky, CNN, Fox, Reuters, Associated Press and Chinese television. Price said a US congressmen and an Indian parliamentarian were among the group.

A cameraman who tried to leave the hotel compound "had an AK47 pulled on him", said Price. "It's impossible to get past the guards but also impossible to know what is in the streets beyond the hotel."

There had been gunfire, mortar fire and RPGs launched around the hotel. Morale among the group was sinking. There was "a huge amount of apprehension and nervousness among the journalists stuck in this hotel. It's desperately hard to see how we get out at this stage."

He added: "It's getting pretty miserable here and you can only imagine the sort of tension which the journalists find themselves feeling at the moment."

Supplies of food and drinking water were running low, and parts of the hotel were without power.

Matthew Chance of CNN tweeted on Wednesday morning: "Woke early, gunman in #rixos lobby gone. Still forces on perimeter."

A store had been smashed open by gunmen overnight, he reported. "Journalists told to help themselves. I had a Mars bar for breakfast."

Earlier he tweeted: "Hoping this nightmare will end in a fizzle – not a bang."

In a dispatch filed on Tuesday, Dario Lopez-Mills of the Associated Press wrote that fighting around the hotel had intensified.

"The smell of gunpowder hangs in the thick heat, along with sweat and a little fear. When the shooting is most intense, we take refuge in hotel's basement conference rooms.

"Two satellite telephones set up on a balcony were destroyed by gunfire, so we've stopped transmitting our material. We wait and worry the gunmen could turn hostile at any moment.

"There is no power and no running water. On Monday we ate bread and butter. On Tuesday, the cook made french fries. Bottled water is running low.

"We don't know when it's going to end, and we see little of what happens."

Many members of the media corps who have passed through the Rixos in the last six months have feared becoming human shields for the regime in the event of a rebel assault on the capital.

Regime officials have regularly accused western journalists of being spies and passing information to Nato and rebel forces.

The Foreign Office said: "The situation is deeply concerning. We are urgently working with international organisations and the Free Libya Forces to identify the best way to safely move people in the Rixos as soon as is safe to do so. We urge the Gaddafi forces at the Rixos to allow the journalists to leave."

 

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