A man thought to be a missing US citizen has been found in Damascus, Syria, telling reporters he had recently been freed from jail.
The man is believed to be Missouri resident Travis Timmerman, 29, and he was found by residents wandering barefoot in a neighborhood just south of Damascus.
In video posted Thursday, the man says only: “My name is Travis,” and adds that he is from the United States.
An alert that Timmerman had gone missing was posted by Hungarian police in June.
Speaking to CBS News, the man identifying as Timmerman said he had been detained in a Syrian prison for seven months after entering the country without permission, having crossed its border with Lebanon.
He had decided to travel to Syria for “spiritual purposes,” he told the network.
He said that his cell door was broken down on Monday by two men armed with AK-47s, CBS News reported, and left the prison with a large group to try and reach Jordan.
His time being held in the Syrian prison “wasn’t too bad,” he said, according to the outlet.
“I was never beaten. The only really bad part was that I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted to. I was only let out three times a day to go to the bathroom,” he said.
Timmerman made similar comments to the Al-Arabiya TV network Thursday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
