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Girl relives kidnap ordeal on TV Girl relives kidnap ordeal on TV
(10 minutes later)
An abducted Austrian teenager held captive for eight years has said fear of her captor prevented her from trying to escape her basement prison. The Austrian teenager who survived more than eight years of captivity in an underground cell has vividly described her imprisonment, in a TV interview.
In her first TV interview since escaping, Natascha Kampusch said she was "distraught and angry" in her cell. Natascha Kampusch, now 18, told state broadcaster ORF that thoughts of freedom had sustained her.
But, she said, her captor had told her he would go on a killing spree if she tried to escape.
Millions of Austrians are thought to have watched Ms Kampusch's interview with state broadcaster ORF.
In late August, Ms Kampusch fled the basement prison where she had been held for eight years since her abduction as a 10-year-old.
Her abductor, Wolfgang Priklopil, committed suicide after her escape.
Austrian weekly News magazine and daily Kronen Zeitung newspaper carried the first recent photos of her on Wednesday.
Killing threat
Ms Kampusch frequently shut her eyes against the bright camera lights during her 40-minute interview with Austrian TV.
ORF said her eyes were sensitive after being confined in dark conditions for so long.
Sometimes I dreamt that if I owned an axe, I would chop his head off Natascha Kampusch TV interview: Key quotes Natascha kidnap: Your views
She describes fearing she would go "crazy" when she was first led to the tiny cell where she would remain for the next eight years.
She said she threw water bottles against the wall and tried to make as much noise as possible to alert her neighbours.
Appearing composed, if somewhat delicate, in front of the cameras, Ms Kampusch said she dreamt constantly of escaping.
"I promised myself I would grow older, stronger and sturdier to be able to break free one day," she said."I promised myself I would grow older, stronger and sturdier to be able to break free one day," she said.
However, she said, she feared her abductor's response if she tried to escape. Her captor, 44-year-old communications technician Wolfgang Priklopil, killed himself after her escape on 23 August.
"I wasn't scared [for myself] - I love freedom and for me death is the ultimate freedom, the redemption from him," she said. 'Claustrophobic'
"But he said all the time he would first of all kill the neighbours, then me and then himself." In an interview watched by millions, Ms Kampusch described being imprisoned in a small, windowless basement beneath Priklopil's garage in the commuter town of Strasshof, 25km (15 miles) outside the capital Vienna.
'Failed attempt' "I was very distraught and very angry," she told ORF.
In her interview with News magazine, Ms Kampusch described her frustration at her ordeal. I knew when I fled that I was condemning him to death Natascha Kampusch href="/1/hi/world/europe/5322356.stm" class="">TV interview: Key quotes href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=3691&edition=1" class="">Natascha kidnap: Your views
"It felt very claustrophobic in that small room. I threw water bottles against the walls or banged against them with my fists so that maybe someone could hear me."
She said she would have "gone crazy" if Priklopil had not allowed her out of the cell on occasion, although this did not start until six months after she was abducted.
She told ORF that on trips out with her kidnapper, she had vainly attempted to attract attention.
"I tried to give many people a sign... I tried to smile like I did on the photos (of her that were broadcast after she disappeared) so people could remember my picture."
Wearing a purple blouse and a pink scarf over her hair, Ms Kampusch repeatedly shut her eyes against the glare of the television lights during the pre-recorded 40-minute interview.
ORF said her eyes were sensitive to light because she had been confined in darkness for such a long time.
Birthday and Christmas gifts
Ms Kampusch told the interviewer she had celebrated her birthday, Christmas and Easter with her captor, who gave her gifts.
"He obviously thought that he should at least give me some sort of compensation," she said. "I think he had a very bad conscience, but he tried very hard to suppress it."
What 'dungeon' looked likeWhat 'dungeon' looked like
"I asked myself over and over again: 'Why me?' Among the many millions of people in the world, why did this happen to me? I always had the thought I was not born into this world to be locked up and to allow my whole life to be ruined. For the first two years, Priklopil did not allowed her access to the news, but he later let her listen to the radio and read some newspapers.
"I despaired over this injustice. I felt like a poor battery hen or battery chicken. You have obviously seen my dungeon on television and in the media, so you know how small it was. It was desperate." "He read it, I read it... He always controlled everything," she said, adding that Priklopil would always check the pages of the material he let her read, to make sure she had not written any messages on them.
About her abductor, she says: "I had the choice either to be alone or in his company. And these alternatives were not very enticing." Her captor had told her he would kill himself - and others - if she escaped.
She then goes on to defend him but says she dreamt about chopping his head off: "I knew when I fled that I was condemning him to death," she said.
"You shouldn't talk to me so much about Mr Priklopil because he cannot defend himself any more. I don't find it very nice to complain about a dead person... Ms Kampusch said she was now hoping to travel with her family and finish school before going to university.
"I had bad thoughts. Sometimes I dreamt that if I owned an axe, I would chop his head off." "I had all these thoughts about what I have been missing, like my first boyfriend and all that. But I already personally fulfilled my biggest wish in the past few days - freedom!"
In the interview with Kronen Zeitung, she said she had tried to jump out of Mr Priklopil's car, "but he held me back and then sped away". ORF said Ms Kampusch had decided which questions to answer and had refused to be asked anything intimate. Police have said she may have had sexual contact with Priklopil, but have refused to elaborate.
She did not say when the failed escape attempt occurred. Within hours of her escape, Priklopil jumped to his death in front of a commuter train.
The two press interviews were given in return for a package including housing support, a long-term job offer and help with her education, Reuters news agency reports. Escape details
'Please help me!' Earlier, the weekly magazine News and the mass-circulation daily Kronen Zeitung newspaper published separate interviews with her.
In the TV interview, the girl described how she tried to signal for help with her eyes during occasional outings with her abductor, ORF says. She told News she had dreamed about decapitating Priklopil.
Natascha Kampusch is now 18 "Sometimes I dreamt of chopping his head off, if I had an axe. I abandoned that idea straight away, because I can't stand blood and I never want to kill somebody. But you see how the brain works when it's looking for a solution?"
"She told me... she made eye contact with people time and again and wanted to signal them: 'Please help me.' And nobody reacted," said ORF's Christoph Feurstein, who interviewed Ms Kampusch. Ms Kampusch told the magazine that she was afraid for others after escaping.
"There were moments in the interview that really gave me the creeps," Mr Feurstein said. "I wasn't scared - I love freedom and for me death is the ultimate freedom, the redemption from him. But he said all the time he would first of all kill the neighbours, then me and then himself."
ORF spokesman Michael Krause said the interview with Ms Kampusch took place in "a secret location". Ms Kampusch recalled how people shrugged and walked on when she asked them for help immediately after her escape.
"She was not disguised or hidden. You could see her normally," Mr Krause said. She ran into a garden and knocked on the kitchen window of a house to attract the attention of a woman inside, she said. Despite warning her that Priklopil could kill them, Ms Kampusch said the woman was more concerned about preventing her from stepping on the lawn.
The chief editor of ORF, Brigette Handlos, said Ms Kampusch was "very tough, very strong, very outspoken". Health concerns
"There were no tears, there was no interruption. She went through this one-hour interview in a very straightforward way," she told the BBC. News said it interviewed Ms Kampusch at Vienna's General Hospital, where a cardiologist has examined her for possible heart trouble. She has said she had suffered throughout her time in captivity from heart palpitations that at times made her dizzy and blurred her vision.
She said the kidnap victim had revealed details about the conditions imposed upon her. Ms Kampusch has also said she often did not get enough to eat. She is reported to have weighed 42kg (92lb) at the time of her escape - the same as her weight when she was kidnapped.
"She was kept in this very small room and when she did not obey, he simply turned down the lights for two days, three days, whatever he felt like... She obviously realises this was totally wrong what he did." News also quoted her as saying she wanted to become involved in two projects: "One for women in Mexico, who are taken from their workplace, kidnapped, tortured and raped... I want to help people starving in Africa, because I know from my own experience what it is like to be hungry."
A psychiatrist treating Ms Kampusch said she was exhausted after giving the interviews.
Max Friedrich, who heads a 10-expert team of psychiatrists and psychologists attending to Ms Kampusch, said it would take years for her to fully recover from her ordeal.
He said Ms Kampusch - who was 10 when she was abducted in March 1998 - "has not adequately lived many phases of her life" and was still struggling with her identity as a free person.