Islamic State uses British hostage John Cantlieto in video tour of Mosul

A new video shows a British photojournalist held captive by Islamic State giving a stylised media tour of the beleaguered northern Iraqi city of Mosul, visiting a market, a hospital and even climbing onto a police motorcycle to dispute reports the city's infrastructure has been crippled.

The video, released on Saturday, provides a window on a city that has largely been off-limits to journalists since Islamic State seized control in June, although reports have trickled out from residents and those people who have escaped.

"The media likes to paint a picture of life in the Islamic State as depressed, people walking around as subjugated citizens in chains, beaten down by strict, totalitarian rule," hostage John Cantlie says as he appears to be driving to the souk or market.

"This isn't a city living in fear, as the Western media would have you believe," he says. "This is just a normal city going about its daily business."

The video, which lasts slightly more than eight minutes, is one of a series in which Cantlie, 43, has faulted Western governments while praising Islamic State and their new "caliphate".

It was not immediately clear under what circumstances he made the video.