Amateur video has emerged showing the US ambassador to Libya in the moments just after the attack that killed him.

In the footage, a still-alive Chris Stevens is found and carried out of the Benghazi consulate complex on Tuesday night.

Those who tried to rescue him and carry him to safety can be heard on the video exclaiming ‘God is great’ after they realise Stevens is not dead.

Eyewitnesses report finding a pulse and trying to save the ambassador’s life, even though they did not know exactly who was at the time.

“I saw him (Stevens) alive. We said ‘yes, he is alive’. He was moving his eyes, he was staring at us. We didn’t recognise him as the ambassador. We thought he was a foreigner, and as a foreigner and we have to take care of him,” recalled Fahd al-Bakoush, a freelance videographer who shot the footage.

Stevens was one of four American diplomats killed at the US consulate in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi.

An investigation is looking into whether they died in violence sparked by a film that has angered Muslims or if there was a planned attack carried out by terrorists.