Gunmen wearing balaclavas, on Tuesday, January 9, burst into the studio of a public television station in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and took hostage several journalists and staff members.

“Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot,” one woman shouted as gunshots rang out while the attackers, carrying rifles and grenades, forced the terrified crew of the TC broadcaster onto the ground.

“National Police units in Quito and Guayaquil have been alerted about this criminal act and are already on the scene,” police said in a statement on Tuesday.

The live broadcast continued uninterrupted, although lights went off on set. About 30 minutes after the gunmen appeared, police were seen entering.

“Police, police,” called out one man in uniform.

READ ALSO: Ecuador declares state of emergency after drug baron escapes from prison

“We have a wounded colleague,” a man replied.

“Please, they came in to kill us. God don’t let this happen. The criminals are on air,” one of the journalists told AFP in a WhatsApp message.

The incident came as Ecuador’s new president, 36-year-old Daniel Noboa, grappled with a security nightmare after the escape from prison of one of the country’s most high-profile gangsters, Jose Adolfo Macias, known as “Fito”.

Noboa declared a 60-day countrywide state of emergency on Monday, including in Ecuador’s notoriously violent prisons, and imposed a nighttime curfew.

In response, gangsters took several police officers hostage and released a chilling video in which one of them was forced to read out a message addressed to Noboa.

“You declared war, you will get war. You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians, and soldiers to be the spoils of war,” the terrified officer read.

Noboa was elected in October on a pledge to fight rampant drug-related crime and violence in Ecuador, a South American country – once considered a bastion of peace, but now a key stop on the U.S.- and Europe-bound cocaine trade.

The Star