A Spanish journalist held captive by the Islamic State for six months has revealed how he was terrorised daily by executioner “Jihadi John”.

Javier Espinosa was abducted while working in Syria in September 2013 and has written about his ordeal for The Sunday Times almost a year after his release.

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Mr Espinosa said “Jihadi John”, rumoured to be British man Mohammed Emwazi, often described in graphic detail how his beheading would take place while holding a sword to his neck.

“He caressed my neck with the blade but kept on talking: ‘Feel it? Cold, isn’t it? Can you imagine the pain you’ll feel when it cuts? Unimaginable pain’,” Mr Espinosa quoted the jihadist as saying.

Islamic State executioner “Jihadi John”.

“It was brushing my jugular now: ‘The first hit will sever your veins. The blood mixes with your saliva.

“Jihadi John wanted maximum drama. He had brought along an antique sword of the kind Muslim armies used in the Middle Ages. It was a blade of almost a metre in length with a silver handle.”

The Spaniard said he hadn’t spoken publicly because his captors threatened to kill other hostages if he talked to the media, but said the execution of British aid worker Alan Hemming in October changed his mind.

According to his account, British-born Islamic State militants took great pleasure in telling their 23 hostages each day how they would be beheaded.

“It was one of several episodes of psychological and physical torture, privations and humiliations that became the daily reality for 23 hostages – Europeans, Americans and Latin Americans – held in Syria by Isis,” Mr Espinosa wrote.

The journalist, who was freed in March 2014, said his “crazy” conversations with his captors were “dominated by their insane notions and sick hatred of the West, where they had grown up”.