This is the moment a professional footballer was kidnapped, driven to the desert and threatened with execution – in a shocking TV prank.
Algeria international Madjid Bougherra, who played for Rangers and Charlton, was subjected to the terrifying ordeal for a hidden camera show.
He was relaxing in a cafe with a friend when actors posing as armed extremists burst in and forced him to the ground at gunpoint.
All the customers are then forced into a cupboard, where Bougherra eases their panic while appearing calm throughout.
The captives are later blindfolded and driven to a remote location in the desert.
They are then made to kneel in the sand presumably fearing they will shot or beheaded before the stunt is finally revealed.
With a mixture of elation and desire for payback, the clip ends with Bougherra chasing his friend, who had been in on the prank, around the desert.
Bougherra, 32, a defender, had spells with English sides Crewe Alexandra, Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic before moving to Rangers in 2008 for a fee of £2.5 million.
Madjid Bougherra can take a joke! (Scotsman)
He currently plays for Al-Fujairah in the UAE Arabian Gulf League.
The prank was filmed for the TV show Camera Cache in Algeria, which remains on high alert over the continual threat posed by terrorist and criminal networks.
Six Britons and 30 Western hostages were executed at a gas plant in Algeria after being taken hostage by Al Qaeda in January 2013.
Hostages were shown kneeling in the desert with their arms in the air while the group's leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar issued a video making a series of demands.
By Simon Tomlinson
