Veteran ITN reporter missing after convoy comes under fire

Fears for news team

Fears were growing last night for the safety of a veteran ITN television journalist and two of his news crew, missing after coming under fire in Iraq.

Terry Lloyd, an award-winning news reporter, and his colleagues, cameraman Fred Nerac and Hussein Othman, a local translator, were travelling to Basra in two vehicles early yesterday morning when they were shot at.

The incident happened at Iman Anas, near Iraq's second city. Another cameraman, Daniel Demoustier, was injured but was able to get to safety. He did not see what happened to his colleagues, and coalition and Iraqi military sources were unable to confirm their whereabouts.

In an interview with ITV news, Mr Demoustier described the incident. With a black eye and cuts to his face, he said he had been in the first vehicle with Mr Lloyd.

"We passed on the left-hand side a big British artillery position with tanks, and on the right-hand side were some Americans," he said.

"We drove a bit further along the road and there was a bridge, and almost when we got to it we saw some Iraqi soldiers coming in our direction.

"They were still carrying weapons so I thought it was better to turn back straight away, so that's what we did."

Mr Demoustier said he saw two Iraqi vehicles following as they drove away. The Iraqis were making "thumbs up" signs at the crew, which he thought meant they wanted to surrender using them as cover.

"But at that same moment heavy gunfire started towards my car, from the right-hand side," he said. "I looked to my right and the door was open and my correspondent [Lloyd] was not there any more." The car fell into a ditch where it caught fire but Mr Demoustier was able to jump out.

He said the crew's other car was unharmed, but he could hear shouting and could see injured people on the road.

The cameraman had to retreat back to the ditch and was later able to escape with journalists from The Mail on Sunday, who arrived at the scene.

ITN said it was making every effort to establish what had happened to the three men.

* An Australian journalist was killed and nine other people injured yesterday by a car bomb in northern Iraq.