‘Free Libya’ gives Cameron hero’s welcome

The Prime Minister was greeted by jublilant crowds as he appeared alongside French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Mr Cameron told the jubilant crowd in the city’s Liberty Square that they had been an “inspiration to the world”.

“People in Britain salute your courage,” he declared to massive cheers. You showed the world you would get rid of a dictator and choose freedom. Colonel Gaddafi said he would hunt you down like rats but you showed the courage of lions.”

Earlier the pair, alongside Foreign Secretary William Hague, flew by helicopter to the Tripoli Medical Centre in the middle of the Libyan capital.

There they were greeted by jubilant crowds of medical staff who thronged forward to shake their hands.

They chanted “Thank you, thank you”, and “Libya is free, Gaddafi go away”.

On the orthopaedic ward, the two leaders spoke to rebel fighters and Libyans injured in the battle for Tripoli, as well as patients recovering from torture in Gaddafi’s prison cells.

Dr Mahmoud Abu Hafez told the Prime Minister that all of Tripoli’s hospitals were swamped with casualties as the fighting raged but the situation now was “fairly safe”.

“We have many victims of sniper bullets and some hit by anti-aircraft guns,” said Dr Hafez.

“We have the doctors, nurses and medicines here for primary care and surgery but we have many amputations of legs and arms, and these people will need to go abroad for rehabilitation, artificial limbs and psychological assessment.”

In chaotic scenes, security men had to force a way through for the two premiers as they were mobbed by ecstatic Libyans eager to thank them.

Standing alongside the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, at a joint press conference in Tripoli, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy – the two architects of the international military intervention against Gaddafi – pledged their continuing support for the country.

Less than four weeks after the capital finally fell to anti-Gaddafi rebels, they became the first leaders of countries involved in the air strikes to set foot in what Mr Cameron called “free Libya”.