Dramatic moment CNN star Anderson Cooper is forced to urgently evacuate set live on air during missile attack

By RACHEL BOWMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: 02:59 BST, 23 June 2025 | Updated: 03:15 BST, 23 June 2025

Anderson Cooper and his CNN team were forced to evacuate live on air while broadcasting live from Tel Aviv.

The CNN star was discussing the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict with the network’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond, when sirens started to ring early Monday morning. 

‘I should just say that we’re now hearing an alert,’ Ward said as the alarms blared in the background. 

Cooper informed the audience that they were all getting an alert saying Israeli forces expected a missile to hit their area in 10 minutes.

‘So these are these are the alerts that go out on all of our phones when you’re in Israel. It’s a ten-minute warning of incoming missiles or something incoming from Iran,’ Cooper said.

‘So now the location we’re in has a verbal alarm telling people to go down into bomb shelters. So we have about a ten-minute window to get down into a bomb shelter.’

The mainstay anchor then asked his crew if it would be possible to continue their broadcast as they evacuated. 

‘And we’ll continue to try to broadcast from that, that bomb shelter. And even if we can, on the way down,’ Cooper said.

Anderson Cooper and his CNN team were forced to evacuate live on air while broadcasting live from Tel Aviv

Cooper was discussing the ongoing conflict with chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward (center), and Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond (right), when sirens rang

Cooper informed the audience that they were all getting an alert saying Israeli forces expected a missile to hit their area in 10 minutes

‘All right. I think we’re going to head down to the shelters. Chuck, do we have capabilities as we go down?’

‘Just checking your microphones. Be ready in a second,’ Chuck replied. 

Cooper then continued to talk through their evacuation, explaining as the crew walked from their hotel room to the bomb shelter.

While waiting for the elevator, Diamond discussed the damage he witnessed from Iran’s airstrikes in Israel the day before.

The crew’s connection briefly dropped while they were in the elevator, then came back on as Cooper, Ward and Diamond approached the shelter. 

As the pundits continued to talk, a final 90-second alarm sounded, warning residents that it was a ‘red alert’ and to seek safety. 

It was the first Monday morning that an alarm went off in the city, as Cooper remarked: ‘It is a luxury to have a 10-minute warning.’ 

The IDF released a statement on X informing citizens sirens were sounding ‘across central Israel due to a missile launch from Iran.’

Israeli security forces and first responders gather at the site of an Iranian strike that hit a residential neighborhood in Tel Aviv

A social media account associated with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published a post portraying missile strikes on a darkened city with a giant skull bearing the Star of David on it. 

‘The punishment continues,’ the post read. 

Iran has launched its retaliation in Israel after the US military struck three of its nuclear sites Sunday morning.

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Dramatic moment CNN star Anderson Cooper is forced to urgently evacuate set live on air during missile attack

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