Anne Smith, 61, an English teacher from Ashton, Manchester, described how she had been shot at by Libyan soldiers loyal to Col Gaddafi, after witnessing them execute protesters in the street.

She said she had been teaching at a school in Tripoli when the violence erupted. "I heard some shouting in the street, so I went up on to the roof and a young man came round the corner. As he did, the police came flying around the street. This young man jumped out [from the police car] and shot them in the street," she said. "The protesters had no weapons at all. There were maybe a dozen security guys and they fired gas canisters into the crowd. They looked up at us and shot live rounds at us. I've never seen anything like it. You could actually see the bullets."