BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce was forced to hail a police car in order to make the ‘News At Six’, following a technical problems at the BBC’s headquarters.
The presenter had to persuade a passing police car to get her to another studio after a glitch took out the ability to transmit from the BBC’s Broadcasting House.
Fiona had to make her way to the BBC’s back-up Millbank studio, but faced missing the broadcast due to heavy traffic that had built up thanks to a demonstration.
The news anchor asked a passing policeman, Josh, to get her to the other studio with minutes to spare.
She later told the Press Association: “I’ve never had to do that before in 19 years of presenting the news.”
BBC News home editor Mark Easton had tweeted pictures of the frantic journey.
“In a taxi with Fiona Bruce and editor of ‘BBC News At Six’ heading for Millbank. Studio at Broadcasting House gone down!! Traffic dreadful. Aagghhh”, he wrote.
“Now in a police car being escorted through the demo. BBC News is at stake!”
And later he added: “Policeman Josh has saved the day! BBC News should be on air!!”
Earlier in the day, the BBC has been forced to run previously recorded content on its live news channel due to the technical issue.
Viewers were left baffled when BBC News’s ‘Afternoon Live’ programme showed repeated programming from an hour beforehand, along with a small “recorded” banner visible on the top left of the screen.
A BBC spokesman previously said: “We’re working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible. The BBC News website is operating normally.”