In June 2004 two BBC journalists were attacked by Al Qaeda extremists in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Experienced Middle East correspondent Frank Gardner was shot and left for dead. Irish cameraman Simon Cumbers was killed. In this exclusive interview Frank Gardner relives a day of terror and its extraordinary aftermath.

Deep in the heart of London, in the secluded tranquillity of the renowned British explorer Wilfred Thesiger's Edwardian flat, Frank Gardner can still recall the moment in which his fascination with the Arab and Islamic world first began. He was 16 years of age and the year; 1977.

A chance meeting with the old explorer on a cold, wet Chelsea morning was to lead to an unexpected invite to the Arabist's home. As the soft golden glint of richly decorated Yemeni daggers gently illuminated Thesiger's cramped living room, Gardner listened quietly, enthralled as Thesiger recounted daring tales of life among Bedouin tribes and Arab sheikhs in the unforgiving deserts of Arabia.

Old leather camel saddles and shrivelled water gourds lay strewn across the floor as Gardner marvelled in awe at walls besieged by loosely hung photographs of ventures in Arabia and far Africa. The lined face of a Bedouin nomad, framed by a checkered headscarf, stared down upon him, an antiquated rifle by his side.

For Gardner the visit was an inspiration, Thesiger imbuing within him a spirit of adventurous travel and a longing for understanding of cultures unique to his own. It was to be a formative meeting and the beginning of a remarkable journey.

More than 24 years later Gardner was to become one of the world's foremost journalists specializing in the American led war on terror and dedicated to unravelling its complexities to a global audience as the BBC security correspondent.

It was a role that was first undertaken in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and almost ending in tragedy in the backstreets of southern Riyadh in June 2004, when he and his cameraman fell victim to the Al Qaeda terrorism that they had been investigating.

It has been two years now since Frank Gardner and Simon Cumbers were attacked by extremists in the sprawling Suwaidi district of the Saudi capital Riyadh. Cumbers, a former television reporter and experienced veteran of countless assignments to the Middle East, was murdered. Gardner, an expert on Al Qaeda, was shot six times at point blank range yet miraculously survived.

The two men had travelled to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the deadly Al Qaeda raids in the oil rich towns of Khobar and Yanbu. Al Qaeda's strength in the Kingdom was apparently increasing, prompting fears of potential instability in the global oil market.

The BBC immediately dispatched Gardner and Cumbers to eastern Saudi Arabia to provide an analysis of the situation. They arrived on the evening of June 1 and began filming in earnest, compiling reports on expatriate life and the efforts of the security forces to combat Al Qaeda.

The atmosphere was tense, Gardner was alarmed at the sight of a mounted machine-gun emplacement outside his hotel, an armored car parked nearby. They filmed in Khobar and Ras Tanura.

On the morning of June 6 Gardner and Cumbers prepared to leave northern Riyadh for the south of the city. Unknown to them a team of four Al Qaeda members were also embarking upon a similar journey to attend a meeting with the then Al Qaeda leader in the kingdom, Abdel Aziz Al Muqrin.

It was while passing through the impoverished streets of Suwaidi on route to the terror summit that the gunmen spotted Gardner and Cumbers, who had also arrived in Suwaidi, filming outside of their vehicle, seemingly unaware of the underlying danger of the area.

Initially the four gunmen were unsure whether or not to attack the two unsuspecting journalists, but their uncertainty was soon reconciled and under the guidance of both Muqrin and another leading Al Qaeda figurehead, Faisal Al Dakheel, the twin fates of Gardner and Cumbers were sealed.

What happened next is as clear and as vivid to Frank Gardner today as it was two years ago in Riyadh. He likens the memory to that of a car crash with each terrifying detail firmly entrenched in his mind.

Gardner and Cumbers had spent the morning of June 6 eagerly awaiting written permission from the Saudi authorities and ministry of information to film in the highly conservative quarter of the Suwaidi suburb of southern Riyadh. This was to be their final day of filming prior to their intended flight home the following day.

Accompanied by a government issued driver and minder, Gardner and Cumbers arrived in Suwaidi shortly after noon as residents began to emerge from the midday siesta.

"When we drew up on the edge of Suwaidi it looked like a completely normal Gulf residential suburb ... peachy colored villas, bougainvillea coming down the walls, very average, a couple of kids playing in the street, nobody suspicious lurking in doorways and whispering or anything like that," says Gardner, pointing out, however, that he did notice a number of residents donning the "short robes and long beards of devout fundamentalists."

Gardner and Cumbers were comfortable with their surroundings and felt reassured by the relaxed manner of their government minder, Yahya, and the general calm of the suburb. They filmed for half-an-hour, 20 minutes longer than they had originally intended, and prepared to leave.

As Cumbers began to pack away his equipment Gardner briefly registered a car coming to stop nearby. "I was vaguely aware of some people in the distance and noticed a young Saudi," later identified as Abdullah Al Subaie, "emerge from the parked vehicle but there was nothing suspicious at first."

Subaie began to approach Gardner with a hint of a smile on his face calling out in Arabic the familiar Muslim greeting "assalaam-u-alaykum." Assuming him to be a friend of their government minder, Gardner greeted him in kind, replying in Arabic: "Wa alaykum assalaam wa rahmatullah wa barakaatuh."

As if surprised, Subaie stopped and locked eyes with Gardner, his face suddenly curious. Without warning he began to advance pulling a 9mm pistol from a hidden pocket within his traditional thaub dress. "I shouted in Arabic, stupidly 'No, don't do this!' as soon as I saw him pulling out the pistol," says Gardner.

"He was probably 30 meters from me and I took off at once and I presume that Simon ran at the same time. We ran in different directions. We had no time to make a plan."

Instinctively Gardner began to run from the gunman deeper into the heart of Suwaidi. Shots rang out from behind and suddenly Gardner felt a sharp pain course through his shoulder. A bullet had passed straight through his body but he continued running.

"For a few brief, happy seconds I thought I was actually going to make it, trusting in the power of my legs to outrun my attackers." Within minutes that delight was quickly shattered as another shot echoed in the still air and a bullet ripped through his right leg, fracturing his femur.

As he fell onto the rough ground, a second vehicle drew up alongside him with three gunmen dressed in Jihadi style isaaba clothing looking down at him; their thin, pale faces framed by unkempt beards, their features, Gardner recalls, contorted with hatred.

One of the men, Dakheel, was pointing a gun at Gardner. "I pleaded with them in Arabic not to shoot me," says Gardner "they had a very quick discussion among themselves about what to do with me ... it didn't take long. I couldn't pick up what they were saying, but they responded to my pleas by opening fire once more, this time emptying the pistol into me at pretty much point blank range."

Four 9mm bullets smashed into Gardner's back, pelvis and abdomen. "I don't remember it hurting at the point of impact ... just a deafening noise each time he squeezed the trigger and a sickening jolt as the bullets thudded into my body."

Amazed to find himself still alive and conscious, Gardner closed his eyes and lay still, pretending to be dead. He heard one of the gunmen step out of the vehicle. He listened, terrified, as the sound of falling footsteps edged closer to his body. As he held his breath Gardner prepared to die, waiting for the final execution shot to the back of the head.

The shot, however, did not come. Instead the gunman began to search Gardner's back trouser pockets. In one he found Simon Cumbers radio microphone and in the other a miniature Koran.

That discovery Gardner believes along with the fact that he had spoken Arabic to the gunmen may have saved his life, by giving his attackers pause for thought. After a few "terrifying seconds" had passed the gunman quickly returned to his vehicle and, to Gardner's relief, hurriedly drove off leaving him for dead in the middle of the street.

Once certain of his attackers departure, Gardner rolled over and cried out for help already aware that his legs appeared paralyzed. "By now the adrenaline had worn off and I was in the most excruciating, indescribable pain. In a cracked and desperate voice I cried out for help. My cries were of base, animal pain ... I was amazed I didn't black out."

Having experienced acts of immense generosity and hospitality throughout the Middle East, Gardner was astonished by the behavior of the locals who had emerged onto the scene. "It was extraordinary. I was lying in the road, obviously badly injured, and yet nobody came to help ... that is one of the things I remember most about this ordeal; the terrible feeling of loneliness."

For more than half-an-hour Gardner pleaded for help but to no avail. Instead of an ambulance, two police cars arrived at the scene. Uncertain of the severity of his injuries, Gardner was hastily manhandled into the back of one of the cars and swiftly taken to the local Imam hospital for emergency surgery.

"When we arrived it took a long time to get me out of the police car and on to a hospital trolley. I [then] remember being rushed through the hospital doors and wheeled into the operating theatre. I was shouting for painkillers and [eventually] a needle slid into my arm and I sank into oblivion."

The dedicated doctors of the Imam battled for over an hour to stabilize Gardner but their lack of experience in treating such serious wounds soon began to threaten the life of their patient.

With limited medical facilities available, Gardner continued to lose blood and his temperature had plummeted to dangerously low levels; his body unable to cope with the immense damage inflicted by the six bullets. In short he was dying, and, as his condition began to steadily decline, so, too, did the hopes of his doctors.

The situation could not have been direr. Two things, however, were to eventually save his life.

The first was that the governor of Riyadh, Prince Salman Bin Abdel Aziz, had heard of what had happened and immediately dispatched a mobile intensive care unit from the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in northern Riyadh.

The second was that the surgeon leading the emergency rescue team was a young South African bullet wound specialist, Peter Bautz. The combination of both Prince Salman's rapid actions and the expertise of Dr. Bautz were to prove paramount in ensuring Gardner's survival.

For the next 40 hours, Bautz and his fellow surgeons operated on Gardner a staggering nine times as he underwent a series of extensive procedures. He was transferred to the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and there he remained for eight days in a medically induced coma, close to death and unaware of the commotion surrounding him or of the murder of his colleague and friend Simon Cumbers.

When he awoke, he was stunned to find himself still alive and now safe. As he slowly began to regain consciousness the face of his wife, Amanda, greeted him. The euphoria of simply being alive, however, was quickly evaporated as news of his cameraman's death became an unwelcome reality.

"Although I was pretty groggy I asked a number of questions. I remember the first thing I asked was 'what's happened to Simon?' and she said: "He didn't make it, I'm sorry." Gardner was devastated and although he had rarely worked with Cumbers prior to their trip to Saudi, Gardner had been impressed by the Irishman's unfailing humor and steadfast professionalism, remarking that he was "an absolute pleasure to work with."

It was not until June 2005 that Gardner eventually learned of the full details of his murder. He had initially been informed by the Saudi authorities that Cumbers had been pursued for more than a kilometer through the narrow backstreets of Suwaidi before being shot in the back of the head by his attackers. It is now believed, however, that Cumbers had been killed almost as soon as the attack began, shot to death at close range by one of the gunmen as he ran for cover.

The ruthless manner of his death still haunts Gardner and the many thousands across the world who had considered Cumbers to have been a gentle and trusted friend.

Following a further 10 days of intensive care and hospitalization, Gardner and his wife returned to the United Kingdom in an air ambulance supplied and paid for by the Saudi royal family.

Months of painful recovery and rehabilitation followed at the Royal London Hospital, where Gardner underwent a series of agonizing operations and endured weeks of fever and vomiting as a result of infection. The first bullet that struck Gardner on the day of the attack caused relatively minor damage while the second severely fractured his right leg. The remaining four bullets hit Gardner at point blank range in the back, three of which seriously damaged his intestines, bladder, and pelvis.

So severe was the damage to his lower abdominal organs that doctors had little option but to remove up to six meters of his small bowel, large intestine, and colon. The fourth and final bullet was to result in irreparable damage to his spine and surrounding nerves, paralyzing his body from the waist down.

Life for Frank Gardner now is very different from what it had been a mere two years ago. Once fit and healthy, Gardner is now facing a lifetime of complications resulting from the injuries that he suffered. He will never walk again or regain his former independence.

He is grateful for his "good innings as an able-bodied man" who was fortunate to have run marathons, climb mountains, and explore isolated areas of the world. He does however, admit that he has found it difficult to adapt to his new circumstances. "The most stressful thing is coping with being disabled ... it has been a catastrophic blow," he says. "But there is life before a spinal injury and life afterwards, and, in a way, that has dwarfed the horror of what has happened."

Despite continuing to endure consistent physical pain, Gardner remains a remarkable optimist. He is thankful that he has not suffered any form of post-traumatic stress disorder in relation to the shooting and that his long held love and appreciation for the Middle East and its people has survived.

He certainly does not blame the Saudi people for what happened to him in Riyadh nor does he make a direct connection between those who shot him and the Arab world as a whole.

Sympathetic letters from Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East have restored Gardner's faith in the ability of both Muslims and Christians to become friends regardless of the actions of extremists. Indeed Gardner himself has refused to allow the actions of those who shot him from disrupting his life.

On April 18, 2005, just 10 months after the shooting, he completed a significant milestone in his recovery when he returned to work at the BBC. When asked whether or not he had always believed that he would eventually return to his old job he was adamant. "I was sure that I wanted to return to my job in some form. The BBC has been totally supportive right from the beginning of this whole tragedy. Early on in my recovery they guaranteed my job for me, which gave me something to aim for."

He is pleased to be back at his desk at the BBC and reporting upon issues and events important to a global audience. He played a vital role covering the London bombings in July and has recently returned to the Middle East to provide an analysis of the Israeli incursion into Lebanon.

Gardner's role as the network's security correspondent has not changed by the manner in which he fulfils that role has. "The main difference in my journalism now is that I can no longer do the sort of 'action-man' journalism I enjoyed before. I have to watch my colleagues going off to places like Afghanistan and Iran, places that would be logistically very difficult for me to go to in a wheelchair. As you can imagine, this is very frustrating," he says.

Since returning to work, Gardner's life has been hectic. In October 2005 he was honored by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in London when he received an OBE for services to journalism, and in May he completed his long-awaited autobiography: Blood and Sand.

Writing the book has been a cathartic experience for Gardner. "I wrote the first chapter of the book while I was still recovering in hospital in August 2004. I wanted to get down in print everything I could remember before it faded from memory. I then began to formulate chapter ideas and in early 2005, my agent and I went to see publishers and after we had received a deal I began to write in earnest," he says.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed going back over my Middle East experiences and I am delighted to have the opportunity to share them with others."

The memoir is a compelling and witty account of Gardner's travels and experiences throughout Africa and the Islamic world. It is part autobiography, part travelogue as it charts Gardner's life from a young schoolboy fascinated by Iranian architecture to that of a wealthy Bahrain-based banker and roaming journalist.

At the age of 18 Gardner, inspired by the stories and photographs of Wilfred Thesiger, undertook a course in Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Exeter in southern England. The course involved a year of study in the medieval slums of Cairo where Gardner taught English to impoverished schoolchildren and lived as an adopted son of a large Muslim family in Gamaliya.

It is in Cairo that Gardner first discovered the mesmerizing sights and sounds of a city that he would come to love. "In Islamic Cairo I found only kindness, security, and generosity. That year in Cairo affected me deeply, giving me a lasting love of the Arab world that has survived many of its less pleasant aspects."

The book is fast moving and offers a tantalizing glimpse into the life of a traveller in a foreign land. It is full of humorous anecdotes and provides a graphic portrayal of Gardner's adventures including a daring two-day trip to the heart of Khartoum clinging to the top of a train.

During the early 1980's Gardner followed in the footsteps of the fabled Lawrence of Arabia when he lived among the Bedouins of the Wadi Rum and the nomads of Jordan.

Gardner's respect and admiration for the Arab and Islamic world is as palpable as it is genuine. He is keen to stress that his memoir is not merely the chilling recollection of a "horror story" but rather an exploration of a region of the world largely undiscovered by many and subject to great misunderstanding.

"I hope that my book will give readers a glimpse of a different Middle East, one beyond the headlines, where my own tragic experience only came after many years of good ones," he says. "My abiding memory of the Muslim world is not of facing the pistol barrels of a few fanatics, but of sharing the lives of good, ordinary people in Egypt, Jordan, and elsewhere."

For 25 years Frank Gardner made the Middle East his home, enjoying the company of people that he considers to be "hospitable, generous, and kind." For a man so devoid of prejudice, the greatest tragedy of Blood and Sand is the fact that such an individual should fall victim to extremists, acting in a manner unbecoming of a religion that Gardner has come to admire and respect.

The greatest inspiration of the book, however, is the fact that despite the violence visited upon himself and Simon Cumbers, Gardner has not allowed the actions of those extremists to diminish his respect and continued admiration of the Middle East.

Perhaps the most admirable passage of the entire book is Gardner's perceptive conclusion. "There is so much humanity in both Christianity and Islam and I find it so very sad that we see so many bad aspects of religion in the news. I hope for a world where the Islamic world can be appreciated for its culture and contributions to civilization. I hope for a world where there is no place for those who shot Simon Cumbers and me, nor for those who say that Arabs and Westerners cannot be friends."