Shot BBC man refused to carry gun

The BBC cameraman shot dead in Saudi Arabia had refused to carry a gun for protection because he did not want to become another threat.

Simon Cumbers was killed when gunmen opened fire as he filmed the house of an al Qaeda member with his colleague, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, in the southern district of Suweidi yesterday. Mr Gardner, 42, was injured and is in a stable condition in hospital.

Cumbers, 36, and his wife of seven years Louise Bevan were joint directors of Locum Productions of Brentford, which supplied cameramen to work around the world.

He covered the war in Iraq last year for the BBC.

Cumbers was aware of the risks, but had argued against carrying a weapon in a war zone. He said: "We are not the military and we cannot cross that line. We cannot become more of a threat."

He was from southern Ireland but had settled in London. He told his friends back in Navan, County Meath that he was "loving every moment of it".

Ms Bevan is also an experienced broadcaster and journalist who has worked for the BBC, ITN and TV-am and covered the Gulf War from Israel in 1991 and has worked in Iraq.

Today BBC director of news Richard Sambrook said: "Simon was extremely experienced in terms of working in difficult locations like this, so both men would have thought very seriously about what they were doing and how they were going about it."

Cumbers worked for several years as a reporter in Ireland and covered the Good Friday Agreement and the Omagh bombing. He also worked as a correspondent with ITN before retraining as a cameraman and setting up his own company.

Cathy Grieve, an editor of BBC News Interactive, worked alongside him at Sky News in Northern Ireland in the Nineties. She said: "He was always positive about his work and was keen to do the job to the best of his ability, regardless of how exciting or mundane that task may be."

An official spokesman for Tony Blair said: "Our thoughts are with the families of Frank Gardner and Simon Cumbers. For those of us who came across Simon in his work, we know that he was a decent man."

On a school visit in Birmingham today, the Prime Minister said: "Our first thoughts are obviously with the families of those that have been involved, but it is important we recognise that - day in, day out - this is a strategy by terrorists who will kill innocent people, who will kill people who are involved in our democracy.

"We have seen, since September 11, and Bali and Madrid, they are a threat in literally every part of the world. We have to be vigilant and get out and get after them and make sure we deal with

this issue." Acting BBC director general Mark Byford expressed his " deepest sympathy" to both families.

Cumbers's death follows that of ITN's Terry Lloyd in Iraq last year.

The aftermath of yesterday's attack was captured by an Arabic TV crew and film of Mr Gardner, a father of two young daughters, lying on the ground with two apparent bullet wounds was broadcast.

Sambrook said: "He had extensive surgery last night. He suffered principally abdominal injuries, some gunshot wounds to his abdomen, but his condition is stable."

He added: "We intend to go on reporting what is happening in Saudi Arabia but how many people we deploy there and the kinds of people we deploy there we are going to have to think about very carefully, but we really need to understand what happened yesterday before we draw any conclusions."