An American man was found wandering around Damascus after months in a Syrian prison

An American man, who was held in a Syrian prison for months after entering the country on foot, described being freed by men with hammers when rebels overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

The man – who later identified himself as Travis Timmerman to the BBC’s US news affiliate CBS – was found by residents near the capital Damascus.

Photos posted on social media show him lying on a couch while residents talk to local reporters.

Mr Timmerman said he was arrested when he entered the country seven months ago.

He went missing in the Hungarian capital of Budapest in May, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

On Monday, a day after rebels took power in Damascus and toppled Assad, Mr Timmerman said two men armed with a hammer broke down the door of his prison.

“It exploded, it woke me up”, he said.

“I thought the guards were already there, so I thought the fight would be more intense than it ended up being… When we got out, there was no resistance, no real fighting.”

The 30-year-old suspect said he left prison with a group of people and was trying to go to Jordan.

He said he had “a few moments of fear” when he was released from prison, adding that he is now very worried about finding a place to sleep.

However, the local people had accepted his requests for food and help, he told reporters.

“They were coming to me, mostly,” Mr Timmerman said

Thousands of prisoners have been released since the fall of Assad over the weekend.

The images showed men, women and in some cases children emerging from overcrowded, windowless cells, often confused and unaware of the events outside.

The Assad regime was notorious for its extremely harsh prisons, and the UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated that around 60,000 people were tortured and killed in prisons run by the ousted president.

However, Mr Timmerman appears to be doing well, telling CBS: “I feel fine. I’ve been fed and watered, so I’m fine.”

He went on to say that he used a mobile phone while he was in custody and spoke to his family three weeks ago.

The victorious rebels said they planned to do so close Assad’s prisons and hunt down those responsible from killing or torturing prisoners.

“We will follow them in Syria, and we ask countries to hand over those who have fled so that we can achieve justice,” said rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.