Charlie Cole is dead, one of four photographers who took the iconic image of "tank man" in Tiananmen

Charlie Cole, one of the photographers who captured the iconic image of the crackdown on Tiananmen Squarein Beijing, in which a man blocks pbadage to a column of tanks, died a few days ago in Indonesia, according to US authorities.

Charlie Cole, 64, of Texas, died September 5 in Bali, where he had been living for a long time, according to the State Department.

Cole won in 1990 the World Press Photo Award at the best snapshot of the year for his photo of "tank man", whose identity has never been known. According to Cole in an interview with New York Times, the man who tried to block the advance of a column of at least 17 tanks, on June 5, 1989, is the one who "took the picture". "I was only one of the photographers, and I was honored to be there," he said.

Cole worked for the magazine Newsweek when he captured the scene from a balcony of the Beijing hotel, overlooking Changan Avenue. He took the picture with a Nikon and a 300 mm lens, about 200 meters. In its version, we see a closed plane of the man in front of three tanks, with the red star clearly visible.

"The man in the tank" has become one of the emblematic images of the twentieth centuryalthough it is barely known in China because of censorship of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in the square, which left hundreds dead.

Other photographers who took pictures that day were Jeff Widener of the Associated Press, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Stuart Franlklin of Magnum Agency and Arthur Tsang Hin Wah of Reuters.

"Out of nowhere, this young man appeared, with a jacket in one hand and a bag in the otherand stood in front of the tanks. I could not believe it. But I kept shooting, convinced that they would kill him. To my amazement, the tank stopped, "said the photographer at the agency. Efe years ago.

Finally, agents of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) seized him and took him away.

Anticipate the police, Cole hiding the rolls with the images in the toilet tank. He left other photos of the wounded during the protests, thinking that if the police found his empty room, she would not release him.

An hour later, the officers broke into his room, removed his equipment and pbadport. Later, the photographer was able to bring his hidden roll to the AP agency offices and send the photo to Newsweek.