Spanish journalist flees Syria, arrives in Lebanon: employer

Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa has arrived in Lebanon from Syria, his employer the El Mundo newspaper said Wednesday.

The correspondent, who survived a bombardment in Homs that killed American journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik had “left Syria and was in Lebanon in perfect health”, the newspaper wrote on its website.

Javier Espinosa, believed to be the last Spanish journalist to leave Homs, survived the shelling of a makeshift press centre where Colvin and Ochlik were killed on February 22.

Two more journalists, Edith Bouvier and William Daniels, both from France, were believed to still be blocked in Homs on Wednesday.

France has called on the Syrian government to declare a ceasefire in the Bab Amr district of Homs, which has been under constant shell fire for a month, to allow for the safe evacuation of the two journalists, one of whom is wounded.

British photographer Paul Conroy, who was also wounded in the February 22 shelling, arrived Tuesday in Lebanon after rebels helped him flee the besieged city.