Frank Gardner, the BBC security correspondent who was left for dead in Saudi Arabia after being ambushed by al-Qaeda sympathisers, has described how he looked into the eyes of the gunman standing over him and saw "absolute hatred".

Today Mr Gardner gave his first full interview since he and his cameraman, Simon Cumbers, were attacked in Riyadh in June as they filmed outside the house of a suspected al-Qaeda operative.

Mr Cumbers, 36, tried to flee but was shot dead. Mr Gardner, 42, survived despite being shot six times at close range. After months of treatment, he has been allowed to return home from a spinal injuries hospital to spend Christmas with his family.

"Although I didn't see Simon running, I remember every single bit of the attack. It's absolutely vivid, like a car crash, each second spread out into minutes. Probably the whole attack took less than ten minutes, maybe even less than five, but I remember every single thing.

"I looked into the face of the gunman who shot me. I saw in the faces of the gunmen absolute hatred. They had pressed the button of violence and nothing I tried to say to them in Arabic was going to dissuade them. As far as they were concerned I was a heathen, a Western infidel who had come into their area, and this was an opportunity to execute a westerner.

"It was quite terrifying, as you can imagine. These people were hard-core militants. I don't think it would be fair to say they were paid-up members of al-Qaeda, but they were certainly sympathisers. These were people of the same mentality as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's people in Iraq.

"They are part of the insurgency in Saudi Arabia. It's not a rebellion, it's a relatively small number of people who are dedicated to violent acts to drive out westerners and try to bring down the Saudi government.

"And they wanted blood. They wanted to make a statement by executing us and, as far as they were concerned, they left me for dead.

"I heard them talking in Arabic as they decided what to do with me, just before they turned and fired three bullets into me. They never mentioned my name. Although they searched my pockets they never looked for any ID, so I think the most likely thing is we were just too long in the area.

"We should have been there for five or ten minutes, we were there for 30. I think somebody spotted us out of a window, phoned the militants and said: 'Hey, there are a couple of infidels down there filming. If you're quick, you'll get them'.

"And they mounted a very professional operation. They cornered us with two cars, they hemmed us in, there was no way out. It was fortunate for them we came into the spider's lair, as it were, and we stayed too long.

"The weird thing is, being shot didn't actually hurt.

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