Thief snatches journalist's phone, unknowingly broadcasts his face to thousands; arrested

The man unknowingly broadcast his face to more than 20,000 viewers, as per Facebook figures, who were watching the livestream.

A thief snatched a journalist’s phone from his hands while he was reporting on an earthquake from the streets of Cairo, Egypt’s capital, according to media reports. The man unknowingly broadcast his face to more than 20,000 viewers, as per Facebook figures, who were watching the Livestream. The video was widely circulated on social media and many joined in the search for the man as the phone’s camera kept rolling.

The video has garnered more than 6.2 million views and thousands of comments as users found the incident amusing.

In the video, the journalist’s voice can be heard in the background as he films the aftermath of an earthquake that shook Cairo and other cities in Egypt on Tuesday morning. The filming gets interrupted as the man snatches the phone straight from the reporter’s hand. After a brief disruption, the thief can be seen casually smoking a cigarette while riding the bike, oblivious of the fact that he was livestreaming his face to thousands of viewers.

The video has garnered more than 6.2 million views and thousands of comments as users found the incident amusing.

The incident occurred after an earthquake struck off the Greek island of Karpathos, shaking towns and cities across the eastern Mediterranean, reported Reuters. The magnitude of the earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey, was 6.0 and its depth at 37.8km. Cypriot capital Nicosia, Beirut, Cairo and other cities in Egypt, parts of Israel and the Palestinian Territories were also shaken by the quake.

(With inputs from agencies)