CNN’s Anderson Cooper Flees Set in Israel to Escape Incoming Missile Threat
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was forced to abandon a live segment as missile alerts rang out in Tel Aviv, prompting an urgent and dramatic on-air evacuation of the network’s crew from a rooftop set to underground bomb shelters.
Broadcasting from Israel amid intensifying regional conflict with Iran, Cooper was mid-conversation at 3am local time with the network’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward and Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond when air raid sirens and phone alerts began to blare out, warning of an incoming missile detection.
Ward alerted viewers: “I should just say that we’re now hearing an alert.”
Explaining to viewers what was happening: “So 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.”
He continued: “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 and we’ll continue to try to broadcast from that bomb shelter and even if we can, on the way down.”
“Should we go down or do you want to finish this?” Ward asked.
Laughing awkwardly, Cooper replied: “We should probably go down.”
Cooper directed a camera operator: “Are we able to do that?”
As the crew prepared to flee and move equipment, Ward and Diamond continued to detail the situation between Israel and Iran, including how U.S. attacks on uranium enrichment facilities could result in attacks from Iranian proxy groups in the region.
Cooper interrupted: “All right. I think we’re going to head down to to the shelters. Chuck, do we have capabilities as we go down?”
The crew member replied that they were ready to leave and could keep the broadcast going as they did.
“This is the first time today that we have had an alarm like this. It’s obviously something that many here in Tel Aviv have gotten used to over the last 10 or 11 days since this began. We saw one. There was one alarm shortly after, several hours after the first strike, the strikes on Iran by the United States. This is the first one we’ve had this morning,” Cooper said as he walked.
The host and both journalists were filmed discussing the missile attacks from Iran and the impact they were having on everyday life in Israel when CNN briefly lost signal before resuming coverage as the team moved safely toward the shelter.
Watch above via CNN.
