Libya: Tripoli's Rixos hotel captive journalists freed - Telegraph.co.uk

Journalists believed they could be used as human shields and the hotel used as a barracks for a "last stand" by the regime.

The two guards were disarmed after a speaking with Arabic-speaking journalists, Matthew Chance, a CNN reporter, wrote on Twitter. The journalists were sped from the Rixos to a rebel-held hotel by cars from the International Red Cross.

The 35 hostages, including around a dozen Britons, ran low on food, water and suffered electricity blackouts, leaving them unaware of the extent of the regime's collapse and the jubilation on the streets of Tripoli.

The dozens of journalists were taken in Red Cross cars and vans to another Tripoli hotel, the Corinthia, where they hugged friends and colleagues, many crying.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was talking to loyalist forces about the journalists' safety on Wednesday when they were suddenly informed that Col Gaddafi's men were ready to release them.