A group of armed, masked men broke into a TV studio in Ecuador during a live news broadcast on Tuesday afternoon. 

The programme on the TC Channel based in the city of Guayaquil was interrupted and presenters and producers were forced to the floor before the live feed was cut off.

One of the assailants said, “We’re on air to show that you can’t mess with the mafia.”

Police sources told The Telegraph that dynamite had been planted in the studio’s reception. 

Assailants pointed their guns at the well-known TV presenter, José Luis Calderon, as they showed their hand grenades and explosives to the cameras.

Local media in the city of Guayaquil are reporting that staff working on the news programme have been taken hostage. 

In a journalists’ WhatsApp group, TC reporters pleaded for help, asking colleagues to inform the police and emergency services.

“They want to kill us,” wrote one of them.

Explosions and gunfire could be heard from outside the studio, according to local witnesses.

Police say they have deployed specialist tactical units to the television station in the north of the city.

A 60-day state of emergency began in Ecuador on Monday after a convicted gang escaped from his prison cell.

President Daniel Noboa on Tuesday declared the country in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the army to carry out military operations against the country’s powerful drug gangs.

“I have signed an executive decree declaring an internal armed conflict,” and “I have ordered the armed forces to carry out military operations to neutralize these groups,” Mr Noboa wrote on social media after gangsters declared “war” against security forces and civilians.