BBC News was forced to pull an item last night after a reporter - along with her production team and guests - was the victim of racist abuse.

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Reporter Sima Kotecha wrote on Twitter that she was "furious" after her team had to send home guests without appearing on air as a result of the abuse.

She wrote, "Apologies to our guests who we had to send home without putting on air after myself and team were subjected to racist and abusive behaviour - sad obstruction of reporting of a national crisis."

Earlier, she had tweeted, "Apologies - but man shouting terrible things at me has ruined it for everyone. I’m afraid not going to make it on the special programme."

Meanwhile the BBC News Press Team Twitter account further explained the situation, claiming that the team were "appalled by what happened" and adding that the incident would be reported to the police.

It continued, "We will not tolerate racism or abuse of our staff."

As per her Twitter, Kotecha had been preparing to report live from Leicester last night with reaction to Boris Johnson's speech in which he outlined changes to the government's coronavirus strategy.

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Authors

Patrick Cremona, RadioTimes.com's senior film writer looking at the camera and smiling
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer

Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.

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