by Dozens of western journalists are involved in a potentially lethal stand-off over a heavily depleted minibar at Tripoli’s Rixos hotel, it has emerged.
As gunmen armed with AK47s patrolled the hotel corridors, the gathered press have had little option but to barricade themselves in their rooms and engage in a round of increasingly pointless drinking competitions.
Leaked reports suggest that all but one of the minibars ran out of overpriced bottles of spirits and the few remaining cans of Heineken are changing hands for anything as much as 4000 dinar.
With phone lines severed by forces loyal to Gaddafi, there appears to be little help of contacting room service to order replacements.
And as the situation threatened to deteriorate, attention focused on Room 23 after somebody heard a can being opened, although there are unconfirmed rumours that a minibar on Floor 6 still has a couple of packets of M&Ms.
Rixos Hotel stand-off
Room 23’s Matthew Chance, a journalist with CNN, says that forces loyal to his organisation have vowed to defend the minibar even if it means paying the ultimate sacrifice.
And Pulitzer Prize winner David Price told us it is a desperate situation but that he’d be alright with a can of 7 Up.
Price said, “An ITV cameraman in Room 18 had a member of CNN point an AK47 at him because he had a packet of dry roasted peanuts.”
Price also confirmed that an earlier attempt to scale down the side of the hotel using a chain of knotted blankets and locate the nearest offy failed when he was beaten back by bloodthirsty mob from Channel Five News.
“The Channel Five faction have got Kit Kats and Irn Bru, “ he added.
“It’s not even a proper fucking news programme.”
