Masked Gunmen Storm TV Studio During Live Broadcast In Ecuador

Jesse Whittock

10 January 2024 at 4:10 am·2-min read

Masked gunmen stormed a live studio broadcast in Guayaquil, Ecuador last night.

The group broke into public network TC’s studio and terrified staff, holding a program host at gunpoint and showing off their guns and grenades before the broadcast was cut off.

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The terrifying scene shows the masked gunmen shouting at staff and holding shotguns, with the screams of a woman apparently in pain heard off camera. The AFP reported one woman as pleading, “Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot.”

According to the BBC, Ecuadorian police later freed all staff and made 13 arrests. In a video posted by local law enforcement, the alleged perpetrators and their weapons were shown and promise made to prosecute them for “terrorist” offenses.

El operativo policial en @tctelevision dejó 13 aprehendidos, armas, explosivos y otros indicios.

Se liberaron a los rehenes y se puso a buen recaudo a los trabajadores.

Los causantes serán puestos ante la justicia para que sean sancionados por los actos terroristas. pic.twitter.com/9KEXWvDfzZ
— GraD. César Augusto Zapata Correa (@CmdtPoliciaEc) January 9, 2024

Two TC staffers were injured — one cameraman shot in the leg and another’s arm broken, according to the network’s Deputy Director of News, Jorge Rendon, quoted by Reuters.

“Through our earpieces the producers told us, ‘Be careful, they are trying to enter, they are stealing, they are mugging us’,” said Rendon.

“The doors in the studio are very thick, almost bullet-proofed, and they were trying to get in because they wanted to gain access to the studio so we would say whatever they wanted us to say.”

Ecuador called a 60-day state of emergency on Monday. Around 10 people have been killed in violence since then, according to the BBC.

This came after the boss of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macías Villamar (aka Fito) disappeared from prison. Whether the incident, at the TV studio in Guayaquil, was related is unknown.

Violence has broken out across the country since Fito vanished, with police and gangsters both killed and officers captured and forced to read statements to camera calling out President Noboa, who called the state of emergency. Noboa was elected in November following a grim presidential battle in which rival Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated days after receiving a death threat from Fito.

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