Injured journalist pleads for quick evacuation

A French reporter who was wounded in the Syrian city of Homs appealed for urgent medical attention and asked to be evacuated quickly, in a video posted by anti-regime activists on the internet.

Edith Bouvier, a reporter for the French daily Le Figaro made the appeal in the footage, sitting alongside French photojournalist William Daniels, who said he was not wounded but also keen to be extracted urgently.

“My leg is broken at the level of the femur, along its length and also horizontally. I need to be operated upon as soon as possible,” said Bouvier, who appeared calm and coherent.

“The doctors here have treated me very well, as much as they are able, but they are not able to undertake surgical procedures.

“I need a ceasefire and a medically-equipped vehicle, or at least one in good condition, that can get me to the Lebanese border so that I can be treated in the shortest possible time,” she said, lying on a sofa.

Bouvier is seen alongside a man in medical scrubs with a stethoscope who spoke briefly in Arabic to describe her condition and repeat her request to be evacuated urgently.

The video was posted on YouTube and activists opposed to Bashar al-Assad’s regime quickly emailed links to the footage to news organisations.

Daniels said he had not been hurt in the shelling which wounded his colleague and killed two other western journalists on Wednesday, but said the situation was getting tougher, with no power and little food getting through during the siege.

“Our morale is good, she’s strong, she’s smiling,” he said of his colleague, adding he is a freelance on assignment for Le Figaro and Time magazine.