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Omarr pictured in jubilant mood after his liberation last week

A prominent BBC overseas correspondent was found alive and well on a rooftop in Kuwait City last week after having been stranded there during a coalition forces attack on the city in September 1991.

Rageh Omarr, 53, was discovered hiding behind an air conditioning unit by the resident of the house who had gone up on the roof to adjust his TV aerial.

Omarr told a local news team that he became stranded during a mortar barrage when his film crew fled the roof, closing the door behind them.

“There was no handle on my side so I had to stay up there in the hope of being rescued.” he said

“To be honest, I didn’t even know that the war was over, although, I did notice that it got much quieter as the years went by”

Omarr, who was in good health apart from some minor sunburn to the back of his neck, told Kuwait News that he survived by drinking rainwater from the guttering and diving on top of pigeons that landed on the roof and then swallowing them whole or warming them up with his cigarette lighter.

A BBC spokesman said last night: “We’re delighted that Rageh has been found, although if he thinks he can claim backpay for sitting on a roof doing nothing he’s in for a big disappointment I’m afraid”

In 2008, female BBC war correspondent, Kate Adie, was found living up a tree in Cambodia after fleeing from Khmer Rouge soldiers in 1975 while doing a piece to camera about the military takeover by Pol Pot.