When Anderson Cooper set off to cover the riots in Egypt…he definitely wasn’t expecting himself to be in this kind of a situation! This morning, news spread that Cooper and his crew were attacked by a group of Mubarak supporters but thankfully they are alright and have been able to escape the chaos for the time being. However, he doesn’t know how he’ll get out of there! Read more after the jump…
When Anderson contacted sources today, he explained just how violent and frightening the situation has become . He said:
“It was chaotic. I’ve been in riots and melees before, but this is the first time that I’ve been in a situation that escalated to a level where we really had no control. Many people in the crowd came for a fight and that’s what they have.”
At the moment, Anderson is being held in a building where he has a view of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the same place he and his crew were roughed up. However, Anderson wouldn’t disclose his exact location as he is fearful that Mubarak’s extremist supporters might make another attempt to silence him. He told sources:
“Where we are is rather precarious right now. I’m in an area where I can see what’s happening in the square. But I honestly don’t know when I can leave this building. I have no idea what’s going to happen in the next couple of hours…We didn’t want to start to run because we didn’t want to embolden the crowd. So we just walked determinedly. But we had about a five minute walk to get to the location where we thought we would be safe. And we were surrounded the entire time. Occasionally someone would run up and throw a punch. I pushed back every now and then. But we were advised to just keep walking and not engage. Which was wise advice.”
According to CNN, there are approximately 35 staffers including eight correspondents in Egypt right now. The network has a security team in place in Cairo that can assist with safe passage in and out of the dangerous areas. Tony Maddox, executive VP of CNN International announced that Anderson does have a security advisor with him and that more will be made available to him soon.
Hopefully, they can get him and everyone else out of there safely. This thing has escalated so quickly that we’re truly afraid for our people over there.
