Reporter Was Seconds From Going on Live TV When a Group of Strangers Strolled Up With Bad Intentions. His Colleague Describes What Happened As 'Terrifying.

A reporter in South Africa is lucky to have escaped his live TV appearance unscathed after he and his team were mugged by a group of men "seconds" before going on-air.

Vuyo Mvoko was covering the arrival Zimbabwe's president and waiting for the studio anchor to toss to him. That's when several men strolled by. But almost immediately, something didn't seem right. KCPQ-TV describes what happened next:

On the video Mvoko seems to ignore the men as they walk in front of his camera at first and then he realizes what is happening.

One of the men touches Mvoko and he quickly moves off camera as a short scuffle can be heard.

The two men are seen walking back and forth in front of the still rolling camera.

The picture then freezes as one of the men dressed in a blue shirt seems to hold up something that could be cash.

“Hey, we’re being mugged,” says Mvoko into his microphone. “We’re being mugged.”

Here's the video of the incident posted by the South African outlet:

Afterwards, Mvoko joined his colleague in studio to describe what happened. According to him, he was reluctant to hand over his phone to the suspected crooks at first. However, after seeing one man had a gun he relented.

As his colleague noted, it was "terrifying." But the silver lining is in the fact that since it happened to the news crew and the camera was rolling, police will several good images of the muggers.

Watch Mvoko describe the incident below: