ABC Reporter Attacked On Air in Bahrain
ABC News reports:
With unrest spreading across the Arab world from Egypt to other countries, protesters said at least two people were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations in Bahrain.
ABC News correspondent Miguel Marquez was caught in the crowd, and beaten by men with billy clubs in Bahrain's capital, Manama.
The country's main opposition group, Al Wefaq, said two men were killed in Pearl Square, in the center of Manama, when riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets early Thursday to break up the protests, according to the Associated Press. Hospitals across the city were on alert for more casualties.
A member of parliament later told Marquez a total of four people were killed and added that the two people killed, were shot with a shotgun.
Marquez said he was not badly injured, but he was hit several times and his camera was pulled from his hands while he yelled, "Journalist, journalist!" -- trying to show he was not a protester.
Marquez was on the phone to ABC News in New York when it happened.
"There was a canister that looked like -- No! No! No! Hey! I'm a journalist here!" he yelled. "I'm going! I'm going! I'm going! I'm going! ... I'm hit. "I just got beat rather badly by a gang of thugs," Marquez said later. "I'm now in a marketplace near our hotel where people are cowering in buildings."
He paused.
"I mean, these people are not screwing around," he added. "They're going to clear that square, tonight, ahead of any protest on Friday. The government clearly does not want this to get any bigger."
In the spreading unrest in the Middle East, several Western journalists have been attacked.
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