BBC's Johnston says amazed to be free

GAZA (Reuters) - The BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston said on Wednesday it was an "amazing thing to be free" after nearly four months of captivity that he likened to being buried alive.

"The last 16 weeks were ... just the very worst of my life," Johnston told reporters after he was freed under a deal between the ruling Hamas Islamists and the al Qaeda-inspired clan group that kidnapped him on March 12.

He said the leader of his captors had told him at the start that he would not be harmed and had given him plain food like cheese, eggs and potatoes after he fell sick.

However, he was chained hand and foot during one 24-hour period and had often feared for his life, as well as worrying that his captivity could go on for very much longer. He said he had not seen the sun for three months.

"It was like being buried alive," Johnston said.

At one point his jailers fitted him with an explosive vest and threatening to blow him up if security forces tried to free him.

"There was almost no violence," he said, but added, "They were often rude and unpleasant ... They did threaten my life in a number of ways."

Johnston said he was moved between about three of four hideouts.

"In the first one, I was just locked in a room which had a bathroom and they would come and bring me food and so on," he said.

"The second place which I was at for a long time, the regime really got quite relaxed and I was able to use a little kitchen next to my room and a bathroom and I could take food from a fridge," Johnston said.

"It's almost hard to believe that I'm not going to wake up in that room," he said, adding it measured about 2 meters (6 ft 6 in) by 2.5 meters (8 ft 2 in).

"It's an amazing thing to be free."

UNPREDICTABLE

Johnston said he felt those holding him were "dangerous and unpredictable."

"I think this is a small 'jihadi' group. I don't know the details exactly and exactly who is behind it. They had a jihadi agenda. They were not so interested in Israel-Palestine. They were interested in getting a knife into Britain in some way."

Johnston said he had followed events on a radio he acquired about two weeks after his capture. He thanked people round the world, as well as colleagues at the BBC, for their support and efforts to help secure his release.