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Last Updated: Thursday, 5 October 2006, 19:54 GMT 20:54 UK
Lloyd cameraman tells of distress
ITN journalist Terry Lloyd
Veteran war reporter Terry Lloyd died in Iraq in March 2003
A war reporter has described how ITN journalist Terry Lloyd's cameraman begged her to take him back into a firefight to save his colleagues.

Barbara Jones, working for the Mail on Sunday, told an inquest that Daniel Demoustier "appeared very distressed".

The ITN team had been travelling independently towards Basra in March 2003 when they were caught in crossfire between US and Iraqi troops.

The body of Mr Lloyd, 50, whose career started in Derby, was recovered later.

Speaking on the third day of the inquest in Oxfordshire, Miss Jones said Mr Demoustier had been pulled into their van when he began to describe his ordeal.

"He told me he had been hiding in a ditch for hours and waiting for someone to come along, but his main concern, his only concern really, was that his colleagues were somewhere in some terrible mess.

Dan was begging us to go back, to talk to someone, to do something
Barbara Jones

"He relayed to me they had passed the tanks going towards Bridge Four when they saw an Iraqi pick-up truck with a gun barrel on."

She said she was told that the ITN vehicle then came under fire.

The team was carrying cans of petrol as part of their supplies.

"The machine gun fire from the tanks quickly set fire to these petrol tanks," she said.

'Certain death'

Mr Demoustier told her that he put his head down and carried on blindly driving the burning vehicle.

"When he looked over, Terry was gone," Miss Jones said.

"Dan was begging us to go back, to talk to someone, to do something.

"I said no. That would have been certain death."

There were two others travelling with the ITN team at the time - French cameraman Fred Nerac and Lebanese translator Hussein Osman.

Mr Osman's body has been found but Mr Nerac is still classed as missing.

Mr Lloyd joined ITN in 1983 after beginning his career in Derby.

He went on to become one of the most experienced and respected journalists for the network, covering conflicts around the world.

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