Anderson Cooper Leaves Egypt

Following two separate attacks that Anderson Cooper and his crew came under while reporting from Cairo, Egypt, the CNN correspondent has decided to return home to the US, he announces on Twitter.

We also informed you these past few days that escalating violence in Cairo forced several foreign journalists to return home after being threatened or attacked in the streets by protesters.

Cooper himself was attacked twice but neither he nor his crew sustained any serious injury at the hands of pro-Mubarak protesters.

Last time Cooper broadcasted live from Egypt, he had gone into hiding, afraid of his and his team’s safety.

In the meantime, CNN has probably decided to get him out of Cairo, but other correspondents will remain on the ground to document the protests.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to leave Egypt. CNN continues to have many teams in place. It was a hard decision to leave,” Cooper tweeted a while back.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that, even with Cooper gone, CNN still has plenty of journalists working and broadcasting from Cairo.

“While Cooper may be leaving, CNN will maintain a heavy presence in Cairo and elsewhere in order to cover the still-unfolding story that has drawn viewers from around the world,” THR notes.

“The cable network still has over 30 staffers, including eight correspondents, on the ground in Egypt,” says the same publication.

Speaking with THR earlier this week, Cooper said that, even with his experience, he’d never been in a situation so explosive before, where things evolved so quickly one hardly had any time to realize what was happening.

“I’ve been in riots and melees before, but this is the first time that I’ve been in a situation that escalated to a level where we really had no control,” Cooper said of the “explosive” and “precarious” situation in Cairo.

Just the other day, the CNN correspondent broadcasted live from a secret hiding place, saying he’d gone underground because he was “scared.”