KABUL, Afghanistan — An Italian photographer kidnapped in Afghanistan last month was freed Friday in good health and reportedly said he never saw daylight and was kept in chains during his three weeks in captivity. Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped Oct. 12 while traveling by bus from Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern Helmand province, to neighboring Kandahar, said Ettore Francesco Sequi, Italy's ambassador to Afghanistan.Sequi said authorities at an Italian-run hospital in Helmand province received a phone call Friday telling them to go to the road between Lashkar Gah and Kandahar, where an Afghan hospital employee found Torsello, he said.
Torsello, 36, a freelance photographer, is in good health, Sequi said. Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said the military was helping transport Torsello back to Kabul by air, but he didn't know when he would arrive.
In Italy, Modesto Nicoli, Torsello's family spokesman, welcomed the photographer's release. "It's an indescribable joy, it's a news we have been waiting for a long time," he told SkyTG24.