Featured Image Credit: BBC News
Topics: BBC, TV and Film
Ali Condon
BBC News suffered an admittedly hilarious blunder today (4 May) when a segment was cut short and the presenter didn't realise that she was still live on air.
Anchor Lukwesa Burak was hosting BBC News' lunchtime programme when the excruciatingly awkward moment unfolded.
Lukwesa had just finished a news report and thought she had a few moments to stretch while a pre-recorded segment played - but the feed cut straight back to her.
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The news reporter had just been wrapping up a segment on vigils being held for the nine victims of Belgrade school shooting and introduced the next segment before cameras were set to cut.
"And that was Bethany Bell in Belgrade there," she told viewers.
"Around the world and across the UK, this is BBC News."
The BBC News title sequence then played and the text 'Across the UK' appeared on screen before showing a split second of a pre-recorded news segment involving bagpipes, before cameras unexpectedly cut back to Lukwesa in the studio.
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There, the BBC host was seen stretching her arms over her head and muttering to herself 'Okay!'
While her arms were up in the air, she quickly spotted that she was back on air and her eyes widened in shock.
Realising that something had gone wrong, Lukwesa quickly dropped her arms and turned her head down to the notes on her desk.
She sat in silence, staring down at her desk, for quite some time.
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By the looks of things, a video segment should have been playing and so, Lukwesa patiently waited and stayed silent until she got her official cue to continue with the programme.
Finally, after what felt like about five minutes, but was really just about 30 seconds, Lukwesa looked back up at the camera and filled viewers in on a round-up of the top stories of the day.
Naturally, the blunder didn't go unnoticed, and viewers took to Twitter to discuss the hilarious technical difficulty.
"Lukwesa you made my day! Well done Queen!" tweeted one viewer.
"Somebody’s getting fired," joked a second.
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You'd expect a news presenter to be a little shaken up by something like that, but viewers were so impressed, and agreed that Lukwesa handled it like a pro.
"She handles it very well actually, with calm and poise. Textbook BBC News training kicks in," one amused viewer wrote.
A second tweeted: "This BBC presenter handling the awkward camera situation like a professional."
"Love how she carried this off with such confidence," praised a third.