After a harrowing five days of confinement, scores of journalists have been freed from a Libya hotel.
CNN's Matthew Chance, one of the freed journalists, broke the news on Twitter.
"Rixos crisis ends," he wrote. "All journalists are out!"
Chance was one of around 35 foreign nationals who was trapped inside the Rixos hotel, kept there by armed guards and pro-Gaddafi forces. On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Chance and other journalists spoke to their respective news organizations, describing an increasingly worsening situation, with food and water running short and with the guards making it clear that no one was allowed to leave.
An Associated Press reporter wrote on Wednesday that he and other journalists had showed up at the hotel, only to be forced back:
"The younger guard fired his gun in the area and forced the journalists out at gunpoint. The guard forced the driver onto the ground and threatened to kill him. The new journalists were eventually taken inside the hotel."
For some reason, that situation apparently changed on Wednesday afternoon. Chance described what had happened in a string of tweets. He also spoke to CNN's Kyra Phillips, saying he was sitting in a Red Cross car and was thrilled to be free of the "absolute nightmare" he and the other journalists had gone through.
The BBC's Matthew Price also spoke about his ordeal on Wednesday. He said that the journalists were blocked from leaving by two pro-Gaddafi gunmen who said they had been ordered by Gaddafi's son, Saif, to keep them in the hotel. Price also said that, at times, he "feared the worst."
See photos from the hotel:
Below, read Chance's series of tweets about how the journalists were freed.