Some 30 foreign journalists who had been held against their will in Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel by guards loyal to Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi were freed this afternoon and have moved to the Corinthia Tripoli.

The journalists, who were growing short of food and water after being confined to the hotel since Sunday, left the hotel around 4 pm.

There were gunfights around the Rixos this morning as pockets of Gaddafi loyalists put up resistence.

The Corinthia is in a relatively calm area of Tripoli, under the control of the provisional government.

“The crisis is over. The journalists are out,” one of journalists announced on Twitter.

The circumstances of their release were not immediately known, but is appeared that the Gaddafi loyaists melted away in the afternoon.

An AFP reporter said they had moved to the Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel in a safer part of the city.