Harrowing details of the captivity of Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages in Colombia emerged yesterday, at the same time as doubts surfaced over the official version of their daring rescue.

The French-Colombian politician and the captives freed in Wednesday's military operation described casual sadism, inhumane conditions and even killings in the jungle camps of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

Betancourt said she was often chained to a tree and haunted by thoughts of killing herself during her six-year ordeal. "Death is a hostage's most faithful companion. We lived with death ... and the seduction of suicide was always with us."

Betancourt, 46, told French TV she had been treated abominably. "I wouldn't have given the treatment I had to an animal, perhaps not even to a plant." If the guerrillas were in a bad mood, they would tighten the chain around her neck so it was difficult to breathe, she said.