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Sherlock star reveals SA highjack ordeal

London - Benedict Cumberbatch is scarred from his carjacking horror.

The actor, who plays Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock, was in South Africa filming TV series To the Ends of the Earth in 2000 when he and two co-stars were carjacked and held hostage in the execution position with a duvet over their heads.

They were eventually released in the night and managed to escape to find help at a truck stop shop - but he still bears the scars from the trauma.

'It was terrifying'

Talking to the Mail on Sunday newspaper's Event magazine, he said: "[When we were held captive] I had this realisation that it doesn't matter how loved you are in your life, you die on your own.

"I've still got a scar [on my inner wrist] from where I was tied up. It was terrifying. The next morning I woke up as a free man with the sun on my face and I cried. I thought I'd never feel his warmth again."

Five years later, the Star Trek Into Darkness star again found himself in a horrifying situation, travelling by bus into London on the day of the 7/7 bombings, a series of suicide bomb attacks attempted across the city on public transport.

He revealed: "Everyone on my bus was in a state of panic. They had heard about the bomb on the other bus across London in Tavistock Square and started running over each other.

"There were kids, there were women, it was a real fight to get them down the stairs. I staggered out into the street. I was on my way to help a friend with a workshop at the Young Vic theatre and I couldn't get through to him.

"The phones were jammed. Everyone around me was also talking about massive explosions on the underground."

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