Baghdad, Iraq ? A journalist for a British newspaper who was kidnapped by gunmen was released unharmed Thursday after a day in captivity, the publication said.

Rory Carroll, 33, an Irish citizen who is The Guardian’s Baghdad, Iraq, correspondent, was on assignment when he was abducted by gunmen Wednesday.

“He just said, ‘I am safe and well and I have all my limbs on,”‘ Carroll’s father, Joe, said in a story posted on the Guardian Web site.

A resident of Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood who was involved in winning the journalist’s release told The Associated Press that he was sitting next to Carroll after his release. The resident spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want his involvement in the release to be known.

The resident said Carroll was kidnapped by criminals and that a group of Sadr City residents raided the area in which he was held and freed him.

His account of the release could not be confirmed.

Carroll’s father said his son had been in a cell “and representatives of the Iraqi government came for me, they had a government car waiting. I have been in Baghdad all the time.”