The only woman among 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran said in an interview published yesterday she had been asked how she felt about dying for her country and feared she was being measured for a coffin.

Faye Turney told Britain’s top-selling Sun tabloid in her first interview since the 15 were released by Iran last Thursday after 13 days in detention that she was threatened with years in prison as a spy unless she did what her captors wanted.

Turney said one morning she heard wood being sawn and nails hammered near her cell and a woman measured her with a tape. “I was convinced they were making my coffin,” she told The Sun.

The 25-year-old sailor, a mother with a 3-year-old daughter, said she was kept in isolation for five days and was asked by an Iranian official how she felt about dying for her country. When captured, she feared she could be raped, The Sun said. Turney became a symbol of the standoff between Britain and Iran, which raised international tensions and rattled financial markets, when she was shown on Iranian television wearing a headscarf and nervously smoking a cigarette.

Iran released three letters said to have been written by Turney. One of them said she had been sacrificed because of the policies of the US and British governments.