CNN star forced to evacuate live on air in Israel amid missile strike

Daily Mail​

4 hours ago

Anderson Cooper and his CNN team were forced to evacuate live on air while broadcasting from Israel. The network star was discussing the ongoing conflict in the Middle East with the network's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond, when sirens started to ring early Monday morning.
'I should just say that we're now hearing an alert,' Ward said as alarms blared in the background. Cooper informed the audience that they were all getting an alert saying Israeli forces expected a missile to hit their area in 10 minutes. 'So these are these are the alerts that go out on all of our phones when you're in Israel . It's a ten-minute warning of incoming missiles or something incoming from Iran ,' Cooper said.
'So now the location we're in has a verbal alarm telling people to go down into bomb shelters. So we have about a ten-minute window to get down into a bomb shelter.' The CNN star's voice wavered as he asked his crew if it would be possible to continue their broadcast as they evacuated. 'And we'll continue to try to broadcast from that, that bomb shelter. And even if we can, on the way down,' Cooper said.
He then asked a member of his production crew if they were able to keep broadcasting while fleeing the area. 'All right. I think we're going to head down to the shelters. Chuck, do we have capabilities as we go down?' 'Just checking your microphones. Be ready in a second,' the crew member replied.
Cooper then continued to talk through their evacuation, explaining as the crew walked from their hotel room to the bomb shelter. While waiting for the elevator, Diamond discussed the damage he witnessed from Iran's airstrikes in Israel the day before. The crew's connection briefly dropped while they were in the elevator, then came back on as Cooper, Ward and Diamond approached the shelter.
The IDF released a statement on X informing citizens sirens were sounding 'across central Israel due to a missile launch from Iran.' According to the IDF, only one missile was launched but was intercepted and there were no reports of injuries, 'with the exception of cases of anxiety and people who were injured on the way to a protected area.' 'A short while ago, sirens sounded in several areas across Israel following the identification of missiles launched from Iran toward the State of Israel,' the IDF said.
A social media account associated with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published a post portraying missile strikes on a darkened city with a giant skull bearing the Star of David on it. 'The punishment continues,' the post read.