Frantic message: Mr McFaul, pictured with Jake (left) and his wife Angela (right) on his wedding day in 2005, made a desperate 'last phone call' to tell his family he had been captured by Al Qaeda

Delighted: Algeria hostage Stephen McFaul's mother Marie, his son Dylan, 13, and his father Chris at the family home in west Belfast tonight after receiving a call to say he was alive

But last night the oil company manager’s family spoke of their elation and relief at the news that the father of five had managed to escape.



His brother Brian, speaking at their parents’ home in west Belfast 15 minutes after they had received news of his safety, told the Daily Mail: ‘He phoned Angela and she phoned us.



‘He told her, “I’m free, love, I’m free”.



‘Right now they’re getting him and other survivors to a safe camp. He is due to phone her later and then he’ll phone here to speak to mummy because she won’t be happy until she hears his voice.’



Brian, 41, said their other brother Mark spoke to Mr McFaul, who hails from the Irish Republic but lives in Belfast, on the phone and he could hear gunfire in the background.



‘We were worrying about the Algerian army because they were constantly opening fire on the base,’ he said.

VIDEO Stephen's son Dylan says he can't wait to have his dad home

Relieved: Mr McFaul's son Dylan, pictured with his grandfather, Christopher, at their west Belfast home, said he can't wait to get his father home

‘I believe the past couple of days have been horrible for him, what with watching others getting killed.’



He described his brother, who has been working in the oil industry in West Africa for at least ten years, as ‘the type of person that would have stayed strong and would have been trying to keep everybody calm’.



He added: ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen my dad cry until today. He was crying his eyes out – but it was out of joy.’

Mr McFaul’s parents Chris and Marie were joined by his tearful son Dillon, 13, who said he couldn’t wait to give his father ‘a big hug’.



He added: ‘I can’t explain the excitement. I just can’t wait to see him, even to talk to him on the phone.’

Mr McFaul’s father said the ‘last 48 hours have been hell . . . but as a family we’ve been strong’. He added: ‘We got a phone call at five o’clock on Wednesday morning to tell us they’d been taken.



‘Then there were reports of helicopter strikes with 35 dead, 15 dead – but it was only an hour after those reports we got a call to say he’d escaped.’



He said he was delighted when he received the call from Mr McFaul’s wife, but felt sorry for the families of other hostages who had not yet received news.



The local MP, Sinn Fein’s Paul Maskey, was at the family’s home to share the good news.



He said: ‘This family has been tremendous over the last two days. What they have been through is beyond belief, yet they are still standing strong.



‘The entire west Belfast community have been thinking about them for the last few days and . . . we are all delighted.’



Under siege: An aerial shot of the Amenas Gas Field in Algeria, which is jointly operated by BP and Norway's Statoil and Algeria's Sonatrach

Mr McFaul barricaded himself into a room with dozens of others as armed militants stormed their compound in the remote African desert.

Islamic extremists had launched an attack on BP’s Saharan oil field in revenge for France's crackdown on rebels in neighbouring Mali. Algeria is providing support and so became a target.

The assault was made without warning Western allies including David Cameron.

Fighting back tears, Mr McFaul's brother, Brian, said of his sibling's earlier frantic phone call: 'They locked themselves in a room for safety.

'At that stage they heard gunfire. They kept talking and he gave me a text, but then we lost contact.

'Than at 9am that morning he phoned saying "al-Qaeda have got me"'.



Mother Marie said: 'He phoned to say al-Qaida were holding him, kidnapped, and to contact the Irish government, for they wanted publicity.

