Fiona Bruce flags down police car to avoid missing BBC News at Six

BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce had to flag down a police car in London rush hour traffic to reach the studio in time to present BBC News at Six.

After a technical glitch struck BBC Broadcasting House yesterday afternoon, “the team made the decision to head to the BBC Millbank studio” to film the show, The Independent reports.

However, Bruce and BBC home editor Mark Easton got stuck stuck in traffic in a taxi on their way to the temporary studio just 40 minutes before the news bulletin was due to air. Easton posted a photo to Twitter with the caption: “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.”

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Minutes later, Easton posted a photo from a police car with the caption: “Now in a police car being escorted through the demo. BBC News is at stake!”

Later he added: “Policeman Josh has saved the day! BBC News should be on air!!”

Bruce told the Press Association: “I’ve never had to do that before in 19 years of presenting the news.”

The Guardian reports that the BBC News channel “had to play repeats of old news after the live broadcast went down shortly after 3pm on Wednesday, and the news presenter Ben Brown appeared with the word ‘recorded’ at the top left of the screen”.

A spokesperson for the BBC told the London Evening Standard that “engineers are working hard to resolve the issue fully”.