An American man was found wandering near Damascus after months in a Syrian prison

An American man, held for months in a Syrian prison after entering the country on foot, has described how he was freed by men carrying hammers when rebels overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Residents near the capital, Damascus, found the man – who later identified himself as Travis Timmerman to CBS News, the BBC’s news partner.

Footage posted on social media showed the man lying on a sofa while residents spoke to local journalists.

Timmerman said he was arrested upon entering the country seven months ago.

He disappeared in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, last May, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

On Monday, a day after rebels took control of Damascus and ousted Assad, Timmerman said two men armed with a hammer smashed down the door of his prison.

“It was smashed, it woke me up,” he said.

“I thought the guards were still there, so I thought the war could have been more active than it was in the end… Once we got out, there was no resistance, no real fighting.”

The 30-year-old man said that he left prison with a large group of people and was trying to head to Jordan.

He said he “felt some moments of fear” when he left prison, adding that since then he had become more concerned about finding a place to sleep.

He added to reporters that local residents responded to his requests for food and assistance.

“They would often come to me,” Timmerman said.

Thousands of prisoners have been released since the fall of Assad at the weekend.

The footage showed men, women, and in some cases children, emerging from crowded, windowless cells, often disoriented and unaware of the events taking place outside.

The Assad regime was notorious for its extremely harsh prisons, with the UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, estimating that nearly 60,000 people were tortured and killed in prisons run by the ousted president.

However, Mr. Timmerman appears to have been treated relatively well, telling CBS: “I feel good. I’ve been fed and I’ve been watered, so I feel good.”

He added that he used a mobile phone during his detention and spoke to his family three weeks ago.

The victorious rebel forces said they planned to do so Closing Assad’s prisons and pursuing those involved In killing or torturing detainees.

Opposition leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, said, “We will pursue them in Syria, and ask countries to hand over the fugitives so that we can achieve justice.”