ITV News presenter Rageh Omaar is said to be receiving medical treatment after becoming ill during a live broadcast of the News at Ten programme. Omaar, who is 56 and previously worked for the BBC as a foreign correspondent, was seen to have difficulties reading some of the bulletins during the broadcast on Friday evening. The incident caused alarm on social media and ITV has said that it is aware that viewers are concerned for the presenter’s welfare.
Omaar has been international affairs editor at ITV News since leaving the BBC. No details have been released as to his illness or what caused it during the broadcast. The programme was withdrawn from its scheduled reruns on the ITV +1 channel. A message was displayed, informing viewers that the service was, “temporarily unable to bring you our +1 service.” The message stated that the service would resume shortly.
One of Omaar’s colleagues, Marverine Cole, newsreader for ITV’s Good Morning Britain, expressed her best wishes for him in a message on Twitter. Channel 4 journalist Ayshah Tull also took to Twitter to express their support for Omaar.
Omaar first rose to fame for his coverage of the Iraq War while working for the BBC. He started his journalistic career in 1990 as a trainee on The Voice newspaper in south London. The presenter was born in Mogadishu in Somalia and is the youngest of four children. He was educated at Cheltenham Boys College before going to Oxford University to study modern history
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