Muammar Al Khadafi

An Al Jazeera journalist has spoken about how he scooped the world with the first video of Colonel Gaddafi’s final moments.

Tony Birtley said: “We’d been going back and forth to Sirte for the last 13 days. We got to know various people who took us into their confidence.

“The uprisings have been filmed on people’s mobile phones. When we got to Sirte yesterday we started asking around and someone said he could get us the pictures.

“He came back with someone else and we downloaded it onto our computer. I’ve been reporting from Libya for the last six-and-half-months so it was like a lot of old friends coming out and saying ‘I remember you from Brega…’, ‘I remember you from Ajdabiya… I remember you stayed there’. So it was wonderful to share that moment with them.”

British journalist Birtley, who is a former RTS journalist of the year and has been with Al Jazeera English since its launch, added via Twitter: “Every time we pointed a camera we were mobbed by jubilant fighters. Never been kissed and hugged by so many men.”