CNN Captures Dramatic Moment Syrian Prisoner Is Apparently Rescued From Cell

CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward captured the moment a Syrian prisoner on Wednesday after allegedly finding the man locked inside a cell.

In a report aired by CNN on Wednesday evening, Ward could be seen looking around a Syrian prison for evidence of the whereabouts of American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. Prisoners across the country have been freed after former President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown last week.

As Ward, her team, and an armed man searched the prison for evidence of Tice, they came across a locked cell.

“The guard makes us turn the camera off while he shoots the lock off the cell door,” reported Ward, as gunshots could be heard in the background.

Ward and her team then entered the cell, pointing their camera at a blanket on the ground and calling out, “Is there someone there? Is someone there?”

After Ward and her team received no response, the armed guard then lifted the blanket, prompting a man underneath to quickly rise with his hands in the air.

According to Ward, the man claimed he had “been in the cell for three months,” and on his own “with no food or water” for at least four days.

“You’re okay,” Ward told the man as he grabbed her hand and took a gulp of water.

Instead of taking the man directly to a hospital or medical facility, they proceeded to take him outside and sit him down in a chair, before interviewing him and giving him food, which the man’s body was reportedly unable to handle.

The video immediately went viral on social media, receiving praise from journalists and other cable news personalities.

After CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked Ward, “What more do you know about this man and how he ended up in the prison?” she replied, “Well, we don’t know that much because you can see from the report, Anderson, that he’s in a deep state of shock, and honestly, I don’t think he understands why he was taken.”

Watch above via CNN.