Drive belt freelander snapped.

Hi all, please go easy on me its my first post on here.
I have a freelander 1.8 petrol.
Ok To the point. I was driving home from work today at approx 50mph when the drive belt snapped, instantly the engine cut out, I managed to coast it to a safe lay by on the A12.
On inspecting the engine bay I found lots of pieces of drive belt all over the place.
I was recovered home and had a closer look at the damage with the recovery driver. The engine would not turn over at all, all he got was a whiring sound. We removed the cam belt cover to find damage to the cam belt, where he thinks that the drive belt smashed into it. The cam belt was in tact and under tension just damaged around the edge.
So mainly has anyone had a similar experience happen to them. And what was the outcome.
Some questions
Going by what I've said could the engine be damaged due to slipping or jumping cam belt.
If I fit a new drive belt, will the engine start?
Should the engine start without a drive belt.?

Any help would be very welcome, thanks for reading.

Spike.

Cant see why a snapped drive belt (assuming you are talking alternator belt) would stop the engine unless a piece of belt has damaged some wiring somewhere - worth a good look around. Also worth checking valve timing just in case it has jumped, if there is any doubt about the condition of the timing belt have it changed to be safe.

Thanks for quick reply,
Yes it's the alternator belt, the cam belt is new only about 2k miles on it, and it is damaged on the edges, so will be changing it to be safe.
just hoping it hasn't damaged anything else to do with the timing etc.