Gaddafi's son captured, scared and without a fight

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Siad al-IslamMuammar Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has been captured in Libya's southern desert, scared and with only a handful of supporters, by fighters who vow to hold him in the mountain town of Zintan until there is a government to hand him over to.

Crowds across the country fired guns and hooted car horns to celebrate the seizure of the British-educated 39-year-old, who was once seen as a future ruler of the oil-producing desert state.

Fighters from Zintan said they stopped Saif al-Islam as he drove through the desert in a small convoy and detained him without a fight. They flew him to their western mountain home, accompanied on the plane by Reuters reporters.

Hundreds of people crowded round the plane when it landed, trapping him inside for more than an hour and raising fears he might suffer a similar fate to his father, who was beaten and shot after his capture a month ago on Sunday.

The Zintan rebels stopped people forcing their way on to the aircraft, bundled Saif al-Islam through the jostling crowd into a car and drove him away.

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