Sky News war correspondent feared she would ‘never be seen again’ after being locked up in windowless room by armed Taliban-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Alex Crawford has come eye-to-eye with terror, human suffering and war throughout her career(Picture: Sky/Getty)

Sky News’ special correspondent Alex Crawford has detailed the moment she feared she would ‘never been seen again’ after being locked in a room by the Taliban.

The journalist, 61, believed she and her two colleagues were about to be used for a hostage video as she attempted to report on weapon-making in Kabul.

She spoke to Metro.co.uk ahead of the release of her latest Sky series Women at War: Mexico, which explores the systemic violence faced by Mexican women, about the horrifying incident.

The run-in with the Taliban is not an isolated experience for Alex who, in a career spanning 30 years, has witnessed extreme violence, terror and human suffering, reporting from war zones in countries such as Ukraine.

Alex has not just documented life-threatening situations but has also often found herself the subject of them, having been abducted, interrogated and shot at with live bullets among other terrifying experiences.

Asked to single out the worst, Alex explained it was ‘very hard to rank terror’ but was often left wondering: ‘How the hell did we get through that?’

Alex said it was ‘very hard to rank the terror’ she had experience as a reporter (Picture: Sky)

‘It sort of diminishes all of them,’ she continued. ‘In quite a lot of cases, I’ve been just terrified out of my frigging mind. Then you come through it, and then you get another one.’

She did, however, detail the incident in Afghanistan during which she believed she had been taken hostage by the Taliban after being locked up in a windowless room.

Alex had wanted to report on how the terrorist group was making make-shift bombs and IEDs in the middle of Kabul and needed evidence of their activity.

Alex feared her life was over after being locked in a room by the Taliban (Picture: Sky)

‘So, it was very important to go and see them,’ she explained. ‘I went into [a Taliban building] with my male colleague, a cameraman, and my friend/translator.

‘And as soon as we arrived, we got taken into a room, which had no windows and had a camera set up pointing a wall with their flag on it. Then they shut the door and locked the door.

‘All of us in that room thought, “Oh god we’re going to be at the centre of a hostage tape.”

She managed to persuade the Taliban to free her and her colleagues (Picture: Sky)

Alex feared her family would be left pleading for the British Army to rescue her and that she might ‘never be seen again.’

She continued: ‘We just sat there. My Afghan translator prayed and prayed and prayed and was sweating and – I don’t want to say crying – but he was very, very upset.

‘My cameraman, who was a very tough Australian, was just extremely silent. And we were left in there for what seemed like forever.’

Afghanistan is one of most dangerous countries in the world (Picture: AFP)

After that painstaking wait, Alex said six Taliban then entered the room, all wearing balaclavas and armed with guns, and lined up in front of the camera.

She added: ‘I thought this is probably our only chance to try and persuade them. I just launched at them and started remonstrating with them and shouting and being really aggressive and saying, “We trusted you. We came here in good faith. You were meant to be showing us this, that and the other.

“Would you really treat your mother like this your sister like this? Your wife like this? How do you think we feel? This is disgraceful.”‘

The country fell to the Taliban who have banned education for women(Picture: EPA)

Alex recalled the translator was ‘aghast’ over her outburst, fearing that it would result in their immediate death.

However, her bravery paid off, as Alex explained: ‘The Taliban were just like, “Whoa.” They appeared to be, from their body language, a bit taken aback.

‘And I just kept going on angrily saying, “We trusted you.” And then next thing they laid down their guns, they apologised and took us out and said, “Okay, go, that’s it.”

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‘That felt very, very scary at that time.’

This situation is not rare for Alex and she said she didn’t ‘seek out’ or ‘subconsciously’ pursue war reporting and instead found herself early on in her career posted in countries that were ‘alive with riots and protests.’

But why does she keep returning to cities plagues with terror and violence, risking her life?

More: TrendingTaliban bans women’s beauty salons in AfghanistanSoldier details being nearly crushed to death amid horror of Aghanistan evacuationI attempted suicide twice while awaiting a decision on my asylum case

‘In the end it almost feels like you need to do it,’ she replied. ‘Like you should do it. Because if you’re among the journalists with the background, experience and everything fits into place, and no one else wants to do it or is doing it, then you probably should do it.

‘It sounds sort of moral and I feel like I’m not alone in that. There’s a real vocational aspect to journalism where people just really want to do well, and really want to find the truth and really want to shine a light on what happened and uncover an injustice.’

Sky News documentary Women at War: Mexico is available to watch via Sky On Demand.

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