It's a situation one can only imagine – but became terrifyingly true for one local man. Sadie Russell reports on Lou Fear's ordeal at the hands of terrorists.
AN ENGINEER has spoken for the first time of his terrifying ordeal after al-Qaeda-linked terrorists stormed a gas plant in Algeria where he was working in January this year.
Lou Fear, from Tathwell, is among more than 100 foreign workers who survived the raid on the Tigantourine gas facility near In Amenas.
Thirty-nine foreign hostages, an Algerian security guard and 29 militants were killed in the crisis. Almost 800 workers were freed.
BP team leader Mr Fear has now described how he and his colleagues hid from terrorists in an office and used a filing cabinet as a barricade while gun-toting men took hostages outside.
They eventually walked through a gap in the perimeter fence and endured a gruelling 17-hour desert trek to reach safety. Several other groups also escaped through the fence.
Mr Fear told BBC Two's This World: Terror In The Desert programme how his decision to leave two wounded workers behind still haunts him.
The militants first attacked buses carrying workers on the morning of January 16, followed by staff living quarters and the gas-producing heart of the plant.
The documentary heard from one worker in the main plant, who described hearing gunfire from 20 to 30 metres away before four terrorists armed with AK47s and their faces covered burst in through the front door.
Mr Fear – who is married to Lori and has two children, Anna-Victoria and Richard, who are in their 20s – was just a few yards away.
He said: "We opened the door and saw around the corner that there were some guys laid on the floor face down with their hands tied behind their backs.
"You could see the cords sticking up in the air, with a guy above them with an AK47.
"So we ran back. The four of us went into the office, pushed a filing cabinet behind the door and then got this big box of weights which was really heavy.
"We didn't put it against the door. We picked it up and put it right on the top of this filing cabinet.
"Then I got on the floor and hid behind and then someone tried the door handle.
"They were saying in Arabic 'Come out, come out, we're friends', but we didn't. We never believed that there would be a terrorist attack – it's incomprehensible – but it was real."
As the raid on the base intensified, the workers began sending text messages to each other and their loved ones back home.
Mr Fear discovered by text that two friends in a nearby building had been seized.
He sent a text to his wife, who said: "I got a text from him saying there had been a terrorist attack, and he was hiding and that he was safe."
Mr Fear said: "I got told off for not saying the words 'I love you'. I just blanked all that.
"She wanted me to send stuff to the kids. I said no. I actually cried when that bit happened.
"I said no, I can deal with you but I cannot do the other bit."
Mrs Fear continued: "My world just froze. Everything stopped. I couldn't think. I didn't know what to do, whether I should tell the children or not.
"I didn't know what circumstances he was texting me in – if he was close by to the terrorists, if they could hear the beep of the text messages come.
"I daren't reply to it because maybe I would give away his hiding place. I didn't want anything bad to happen to him."
Six hours into the ordeal, it appeared quiet outside the room.
Mr Fear decided that "there was a fair chance there was no-one was around" and ventured out to use the bathroom and collect some water and biscuits.
He then texted his wife to say "I've popped out to get some water."
She said this message made her even more concerned for his safety.
Mrs Fear said: "My husband is not the smallest, quietest, most subtle man, he cannot even whisper effectively. If he cannot do that, how is he going to stay hidden?"
On the morning of the second day, hostages were bundled into a convoy of jeeps rigged with explosives, which came under fire from Algerian army helicopter gunships.
Mr Fear saw the attack and he and his colleagues went to look for survivors.
They carried two injured men back to an office building but saw two terrorists and ran back to their hiding place. Mr Fear decided there wasn't time to take the men with them.
"I made the decision," he said. "A voice told me 'Brother, leave them, or they will give you away',"
From inside the office, Mr Fear heard the terrorists ordering the injured men to lead them to the "ex-pats".
Mr Fear said: "I heard some noise and scuffling.
"I assumed they took them outside. There were some gunshots."
Mr Fear and his group made their bid for freedom at 2am on January 18 by walking through a gap in the perimeter fence.
"The guys just held the razor wire and it just snapped open," he said.
They were rescued after a 17-hour trek through the desert.
Mrs Fear said: "All of a sudden the telephone rang. This voice said: 'It's me, I'm all right. I'll be home in a few days'. It was a new telephone. I tried to put it on loudspeaker for the children to hear but I cut him off, but I knew he was alive."
As the Algerian army staged its final assault on January 19, the extremists chained several remaining hostages to pipes with explosives strapped to their bodies and a section of the plant was blown up.
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian, was behind the attack on the gas plant.
He is nicknamed "the Marlboro Man" because he funds terrorism through tobacco smuggling.
The militants claimed they were retaliating for France's intervention against Islamic militants in Mali.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter