Libyans say U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was alive when they found him in a safe house during the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

The Washington Post reports witnesses at the scene say that when they found Stevens in the consulate he was breathing and his eyelids flickered.

Video shot by freelance videographer Fahd al-Bakoush showed the ambassador being taken out of the safe house through a window.

"We were happy to see him alive. The youths tried to rescue him. But there was no security, no ambulances, nothing to help," Ahmed Shams, a 22-year-old Libyan arts student, told the Post.

Authorities recovered his body from a Benghazi hospital some 12 hours later. He died of smoke inhalation.

More than 30 staffers were evacuated from the consulate during the Sept. 11 assault, and it's unclear how the ambassador became separated from the rest of the team.

"I've never seen incompetence and negligence like this, from the two sides, the Americans and the Libyans," al-Bakoush charged. "You can sacrifice everyone but rescue the ambassador. He is the ambassador."