As cameras were rolling, capturing the efforts by the authorities to reestablish control over an area of Minneapolis still smouldering after a night of destruction, the police in Minneapolis arrested members of a CNN crew on live television.

The episode, which took place shortly after 5am in Minnesota, captured the tension on the streets of the city and came after a tumultuous night marked by burning buildings, looting and general unrest.

The morning anchors on CNN said that Omar Jimenez, a correspondent based in Chicago, had been arrested. In the moments before the arrest, Jimenez could be heard clearly identifying himself as a reporter and offering to move wherever he and his crew were directed.

Instead, he was placed in custody. The camera kept rolling even as it was left on the ground. CNN said that a producer and a camera operator had also been taken into custody.