LIVERPOOL (AFP) - The family of a British engineer anxiously awaited news of his fate at the hands of Islamic extremists in Iraq who abducted him eight days ago along with two Americans who have since been executed.
Kenneth Bigley, 62, was snatched from his Baghdad home on September 16 along with two US colleagues who have since been decapitated. His captors have been demanding the release of women detained in US-run Iraqi prisons.
Overnight Thursday there was further torment for Bigley`s desperate family as the captive`s 86-year-old mother collapsed and was rushed to hospital hours after making a heart-wrenching plea to the kidnappers.
Doctors said she was in stable condition and allowed her to return to her home in Liverpool, northwest England, where two of Bigley`s brothers and his son, Craig, were told to make sure she rested in bed.
Clearly very distressed, Elizabeth Bigley had made a direct television address to the captors, begging: "Would you please help my son? He is only a working man who wants to support his family."
"Please show mercy to Ken and send him home to me alive," she said, fighting back tears. "His family need him and I need him."
As words failed her she muttered "that`s not much good", summing up the fears of many in Bigley`s home city, where prayers have replaced any strong hope that he will be released alive.
At Saint George`s Hall in the centre of the city dozens of wellwishers gathered late Wednesday for a candlelit vigil to mark Bigley`s eighth night of captivity.
The hostage crisis has touched people of all ages in the community as the reality of what is happening in Iraq hits the public like never before.
Bigley himself appeared in a fuzzy video seen Thursday on the Internet, in which he appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "I need you to be compassionate as you always said you were and to help me to live.
"I don`t want to die.... Please, please release the female prisoners.... I need your help, Mr Blair. You are now the only person on God`s earth that I can speak to."
Despite fears that Bigley could also be killed very soon, Blair`s office made it clear that Britain would continue to refuse to make any deals with the captors.
A spokesman for Blair -- who has seen the hostage crisis catapult Iraq back into the headlines as he prepares for a general election expected next year -- said there was no change to Downing Street`s stance.
"We`re following the situation very closely, and our feelings are very much with Ken Bigley and his family," the spokesman told AFP Thursday.
"The government is doing all it can to secure his release, (but) we have no intention of negotiating with terrorists."
Sombat Bigley, Bigley`s Thai wife, also added her voice Thursday to the family`s desperate appeals to the Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War) group to spare the Briton`s life.
Bigley`s wife made her appeal for his safe release in her native language, videotaped in Bangkok.
"I plead for your mercy now and beg that you release Ken so that I may be with him again and so that he may also be re-united with his family in England," she said, visibly shaken.
The family has repeatedly implored Blair to give in to the hostage-takers` demands, with some members saying they will hold him responsible if the engineer loses his life.