ROVING binman John McBride has finally visited Auschwitz - 50 years after first hearing about the horror concentration camp from his father.

The 55-year-old Wyre Forest dustbin man, who has travelled to many of the world's hotspots and trouble-zones, said the Polish camp was the most "terrifying" place he has ever been to.

Mr McBride, affectionately known as Bindiana, has visited more than 90 countries during 30 years of globe-trotting.

But Poland was the last place he had set himself the target of seeing, since first hearing about it when he was a boy.

"Ever since I was a kid my dad told me about what happened at Auschwitz but it didn't mean anything to me until years later," he said.

"I made a point when I had done most of my travelling that I would go to Auschwitz."

He visited the twin camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, a mile apart.

"When I actually got there I had a bad feeling and felt nervous when I got to the camp," he said.

"I stood outside pani- stricken and didn't know whether I could go in."

Mr McBride, who lives in Chester Road South, Kidderminster, saw at first hand the gas chambers where thousands of Jews were killed.

"It was terrifying," he said. "I stood in the gas chambers for a few minutes and tried to imagine what it must have been like for those people trapped there."

During the visit he was moved to tears by a film about the atrocities committed there.

"There was one German guy whose father was a Nazi guard there. He was in tears outside. You could not help but be moved to tears," said the binman.

"The strange thing about Birkenau was that it is about the size of the six or seven football pitches and I don't remember seeing one single bird," he added.

"It has got to be the most horrible place I have been to."