LIVERPOOL (AFP) - The family of a British engineer facing execution in Iraq at the hands of Islamic extremists awaited news of his fate as Iraqis distributed pamphlets in Baghdad containing a heart-rending plea from them for information.
Kenneth Bigley, 62, was snatched from his home in the Mansour district of Baghdad on September 16 along with two US colleagues, both of whom have already been beheaded.
His captors have been demanding the release of women detained in US-run Iraqi prisons.
On Thursday night, 50,000 leaflets written in Arabic were handed out in the streets of Mansour, according to a British source in the city.
"This is a personal appeal from a family whose son is missing. A family man called Ken Bigley is being held somewhere in your community," a translation of the pamphlet read.
"We are Ken's family. Ken's mother, brothers, wife and child love him dearly. We are appealing for your help. We are waiting for Ken to go home ... We appeal to those who have taken him to return Ken to us. Do you know where Ken is? Do you have any information about his whereabouts?"
The pamphlet provides a local number to phone in information.
American contractors Jack Hensley and Eugene "Jack" Armstrong were beheaded earlier this week by their captors Tawhid wal Jihad (Unity and Holy War), the organisation of Islamic radical Abu Mussab Zarqawi.
There was further torment for Bigley's family overnight Thursday as the captive's 86-year-old mother, Elizabeth, collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital hours after making a tearful televised address to her son's kidnappers.
She later returned to the family home in a suburb of Liverpool, northwest England, and was said to be in a "stable" condition.
Bigley himself appeared in a fuzzy video seen Wednesday 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 the fears that Bigley could be killed very soon, Blair's office has made it clear Britain will continue to refuse to make any deals with the captors.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw vowed that the British government would continued to do all it could to secure Bigley's release.
Back in Liverpool, the city was holding its breath, saying prayers and searching for any glimmer of hope.
At the Al-Rahma mosque, chairman Miftah Osi-efa said Blair had failed in Iraq and called on the US to answer the kidnappers' demands and allow the female Iraqi prisoners to go free.
"Politics has failed," he told AFP. "His (Blair's) Iraq policy has failed and we are praying to God that the US shows mercy."
Liverpool's 30,000-strong Muslim community was united in its support for the Bigleys and his congregation would be praying later Friday that the engineer is released, he said.
"We are all concerned and our thoughts are with him and his family."
At Saint George's Hall in the centre of the city, dozens of wellwishers gathered late Thursday for a candlelit vigil to mark Bigley's eighth night of captivity.