This shocking footage shows a six-year-old Syrian boy being tortured by a kidnapper during a three-month ordeal that came to an end when his parents managed to raise the huge GBP 120,000 ransom.

The young boy, named Fawaz al-Qataifan, was reportedly kidnapped in lawless Syria, which has been torn apart by a bloody civil war lasting over a decade.

Fawaz was abducted on his way to school in the city of Daraa in south-western Syria in November.

Two motorbikes reportedly pulled up alongside the young boy and his sister. Witnesses said a female passenger riding pillion pointed at Fawaz and three men grabbed him before they sped off on their vehicles with him.

His kidnap shocked the Arab world after the footage began making the rounds on social media earlier this month.

The footage shows the young boy in his underwear being viciously beaten by one of his captors. In the footage, the boy can reportedly be heard wailing: “For God’s sake, stop hitting me.”

The abductors contacted the young boy’s parents, first on WhatsApp before using Telegram, which allows for a higher degree of anonymity.

This was also not the first video the kidnappers had sent the boy’s family, according to local media reports, which stated that the abuse became worse after each video.

The kidnappers said “this will be the state of the boy every day” in a message sent along with the video.

The young boy’s uncle, who has not been named, said the kidnappers also threatened to cut off one of the boy’s fingers every day until the family paid the ransom.

They asked the young boy’s family for a ransom of about SYP 400 million (GBP 117,000), some of which they managed to cobble together, reportedly by selling their land and other assets of value they had.

They reportedly managed to crowdfund the rest of the money from other members of the Qetaifan tribe, which the young boy belongs to.

Last week, Rami Abdulrahman, founder of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: “It seems that the issue will be resolved within the next 48 hours, as the money has been raised.”

He added: “We do not know who kidnapped him for sure. Kidnappings have been increasing in all areas of Syria.”

Little Fawaz has now reportedly been safely returned to his family after they paid the high ransom fee.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the sum was exchanged on 12th February and the victim was left in a pharmacy in the town of Nawa to be collected by loved ones.

The young victim told local media: “They brought rope and took me into a shed, and there was a man in it. After dragging me, they started beating me with a leather belt.

“Then they brought a gun and put the gun to my head and another at my lap and started saying to my family ‘do you want to take him or do we kill him?’.”

He described being repeatedly beaten by different people to threaten his family.

There is reportedly a high level of violence in the area, with scenes of young children begging for their lives while their adult captors beat them reportedly becoming increasingly widespread.

Many of the kidnapped children are still missing.