A German documentary maker who was kidnapped in Syria when she was seven months pregnant and gave birth to a son while being held hostage has spoken out about her ordeal for the first time.

“I was fully aware that if it came to it they would cut my head off in front of a camera,” Janina Findeisen told Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

In her first interview since she was freed, Ms Findeisen told how she had travelled to Syria without a mobile phone or tracker in October 2015 in order to interview a former school friend who had joined the jihadist Al-Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda.

“I felt under pressure because of the pregnancy. I wanted to tell this story while I could still work and didn’t have to wait until after the birth,” she said.

“I didn’t realise I was making the biggest mistake of my life.”

Ms Findeisen had a guarantee of safe conduct from her former school friend, whom she identifies only as Laura in the interview to protect her identity.

“There is either Islamist propaganda or the terror stereotypes in the media. I thought I could tell their story differently,” she said.