WATCH: American YouTuber Documents Harrowing Escape From Iran as War With Israel Erupts

An American YouTuber attempting to cycle across all seven continents documented his dramatic escape from Iran after war erupted between Israel and Tehran while he was traveling across the country.

Ian Andersen, a Minnesota native whose YouTube channel RideWithIan has been chronicling his solo cycling odyssey to raise money for spinal cord research, found himself trapped north of Tehran this week as the conflict escalated and borders were shut.

“The situation is quite dire at this point,” Andersen said in a video posted from an undisclosed rural location. “All the land borders are closed. Flights have all been canceled. There’s a rumor that the border with Iraq is open. So that’s my best hope right now.”

Andersen, who began his epic journey in 2016 riding the length of the Americas, had entered Iran before hostilities flared. As Iranian officials increasingly linked the U.S. with Israeli military action, Andersen said he feared being treated as an enemy agent.

“The Iranians now see the U.S. as being like tied directly to Israel. Now people see the U.S. as the enemy. So I’m in quite a bit of danger here. It’s no longer safe to bike, in my opinion,” he said. “It’s a matter of just escape and survival. Evading police, capture.”

Social media access was cut off during his attempted exit, and Andersen described hearing explosions while hiding with a local guide north of the capital.

“We heard the bomb… just a few miles from us,” he said.

Amid fuel shortages and rumors of refinery strikes, Andersen set his sights on the Azerbaijani border despite not having a valid visa or authorization. Throughout the journey to the border he was helped by an Iranian friend, Reza, who spoke to him in Spanish to avoid raising the suspicions of authorities they crossed.

“Probably the scariest part about this is that my guide says that he’s no longer able to protect me,” he said as the pair traveled by car. “So if we’re pulled over at a police checkpoint or something like this there’s not much you can do if they suspect me of anything, just chuck me in prison for a few years and that would be the end of it.”

In a dramatic final update to his video on Thursday, Andersen confirmed he had received last-minute permission to cross into Azerbaijan, given an “emergency green light to enter the country” with the help of a staffer at the U.S. Embassy in the nation’s capital, Baku.

“That border is never open. It hasn’t been open in five years,” he said. “Very grateful to Azerbaijan.”

Watch above via YouTube.