BBC Washington correspondent Gary O’Donoghue, who was reporting on-camera at the rally, told BBC Radio 4’s Today that it was an “incredibly violent attack.”

“Fortunately, our cameraman is fine, he is made of stern stuff,” he continued.

A spokeswoman for BBC told The Guardian in a statement that the cameraman was “violently pushed and shoved by a member of the crowd” while covering the event.

“The man was removed by security and Ron is fine. The president could see the incident and checked with us that all was OK,” the representative said. “It is clearly unacceptable for any of our staff to be attacked for doing their job.”