The attack was not captured on film but Walsh was clearly distressed in the live audio feed.
The attack was not captured on film but Walsh was clearly distressed in the live audio feed.
An Australian Channel 9 reporter grabbed and punched by a man allegedly armed with a screwdriver during a live broadcast from London says she wondered if he was wearing a suicide vest.
"I don't think anyone knows the sound of their true scream until they're in a situation like that where they feel like it's a life or death scenario," Sophie Walsh told Today this morning.
The network's Europe correspondent was broadcasting live to Adelaide at 6pm about protests in the wake of Minneapolis man George Floyd's death when she began to scream.
The attack was not captured on film but Walsh was clearly distressed in the live audio feed.
"Sorry, I just … I just had someone come up and try and … yeah. A man just came up and grabbed me. He's not armed. A man just came up and grabbed me though," she said.
A "pretty rattled" Walsh this morning said the attacker's calmness while saying "allahu akbar" had been "disconcerting".
"Even just hearing my scream. I don't think anyone knows the sound of their true scream until they're in a situation like that where they feel like it's a life or death scenario," she said.
A 'pretty rattled' Walsh this morning said the attacker's calmness while saying 'allahu akbar' had been 'disconcerting'.
"Which I did feel like that in a moment, I was doing a live cross into Adelaide, mid-sentence.
"The first I knew something was wrong, was Jase stepped out from outside his camera which he wouldn't normally do unless there was a threat.
London police arrest the alleged offender.
"Then I had this guy, random, come up behind me and grab me from behind. It was a bit surreal. He sort of started punching me, the only way I can describe it is sort of stabby motions.
"I managed to push him away. Then he was standing about five metres away from me.
"While I was on air, that's why I was struggling to string a sentence together. He had a hand in his pocket. I thought: 'Does he have a knife and is he going to come towards us and start stabbing us all?'
"We've had these stabbing rampages in London before. It was the third anniversary of the terror attacks on London Bridge. So I had that in my mind. I also thought: 'Is he wearing a suicide vest?'"
Jason Conduit and Sophie Walsh.
Conduit said if necessary, it wouldn't have been the first time he'd had to "pull someone off a journalist who was live on air".
"He didn't want to leave and then he yelled 'allahu akbar' and I could see he had a weapon in his hand and that was when I backed away and got the light stand and just (thought) keep him at bay and call the cops," the cameraman told Today.
Our reporter Sophie Walsh opens up about being assaulted live on air while covering protests just at hours before Ben Avery was ambushed. #9Todaypic.twitter.com/OSqy95PIvs
Conduit said the man "looked like he was on the phone" and had looked over his shoulder.
"You do what you gotta do, and I knew that he had to be stopped," he said.
"The cops had to come eventually and … they did quite soon.
"And they didn't mince around, that's for sure. They took him down quite swiftly." The breakfast TV show's host Allison Langdon said: "You have all of our love. Go well."
