Footage of John McCain being released from Vietnamese POW camp surfaces - on anniversary of 9/11

The film reinforced the Republican candidate's past as an American war hero, probably his biggest asset in his White House campaign.

But the only doubt surrounded the timing of the clip's release - a day of patriotic fervour in America, the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Uncovered: Footage purporting to show U.S. presidential candidate John McCain being released from a POW camp has surfaced

Democrat sceptics refused to accept the film's emergence on such an emotional day from the archives of a Swedish television station was a coincidence.

The 39-second video showed the moment Mr McCain, walking with a limp, was freed by his North Vietnamese captors on March 14, 1973.

The candidate, 37 at the time, grimaces as he steps off a bus with other prisoners at Hanoi airport.

His hair has turned almost white after almost five-and-a-half years as a POW.

Mr McCain and other prisoners are handed over to U.S. military officers. Mr McCain walks forward to salute and shake hands with the American soldier.

Both the McCain camp and the Swedes insisted the release of the film had nothing to do with the White House campaign.

McCain leaves a bus to be handed over to the U.S. military

'It certainly can't do any harm, though. It shows what a true patriot John McCain is and how much leadership he can bring to America,' said a senior Republican strategist.

The film was found by Erik Eriksson, a former reporter for the Swedish channel SVT, who unearthed it when he was looking for footage for a book he was writing about his experiences as a war correspondent in Vietnam.

Democrats didn't want to publicly say anything negative about Mr McCain's POW ordeal.

But an aide of Mr McCain's opponent, Barack Obama, said: 'It is just too much of a coincidence to believe this footage came out on such an important anniversary by chance.'

A superior officer welcomes McCain back