Attacked on Anderson Cooper in Egypt

Attacked on Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper and his CNN news crew claim they were punched, kicked and shoved by a violent mob of pro-Mubarak supporters in Cairo early this morning.

Anderson Cooper and his crew were attacked by supporters of Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday. CNN’s Steve Brusk tweeted that Cooper was punched in the head ten times.Attacked on Anderson Cooper

Cooper claims he and his team were trying to get to a spot in between the two sides of protesters in Tahrir Square when they were Attacked on Anderson Cooper.

Attacked on Anderson Cooper in Egypt

: Attacked on Anderson Cooper

Cooper claims the mob tried to break his team’s camera because they didn’t want to be on film when the violence escalated and men began to punch members of the news crew in the head.

Anderson explained, “The instinct is try to punch back but in a situation like that you really can’t because that just inflames the crowd all the more so all we could do is just try to walk as quickly as possible, stay together and seek a safe location which is where we are now.”

The incident came as pro-Mubarak supporters attacked protesters calling for the Egyptian president to step down. Speaking on “American Morning” after the attack, Cooper said that he and his crew had been trying to go to a neutral zone between the two groups.Attacked on Anderson Cooper

“We never got that far,” he said. “We were set upon by pro-Mubarak supporters punching us in the head.” Cooper said that he and the crew tried to escape, but that the crowd only grew: “the crowd kept growing, kept throwing punches, kicks suddenly a young man would look at you and punch you in the face.”