Two Belgian journalists were attacked and wounded in Lebanon while reporting on air raids in Beirut, their employer said Thursday, as fighting raged between Israel and Hezbollah.
VTM correspondent Robin Ramaekers and cameraman Stijn De Smet were beaten up and shot at by assailants accusing them of spying for Israel, the broadcaster said.
"Last night there was a bombing in central Beirut. When Robin and Stijn wanted to run a report on that, they got wounded," VTM's parent company, DPG Media said in a statement.
"Both are now in safety and are being cared for."
Ramaekers sustained facial injuries and was in hospital, while De Smet was discharged after receiving treatment for gunshot wounds to the leg.
Belgium's foreign ministry said it was monitoring the situation.
The pair had gone out reporting on an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut on an emergency services rescue facility run by Hezbollah, which said at least seven workers had been killed.
The reporters were wearing press jackets at the scene, Dutch-language newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, which is part of DPG Media, reported.
But as they were talking to eyewitnesses, they came under attack from about 20 men who accused them of being spies.
De Smet took two bullets in his leg, while Ramaekers and a fixer were taken to a cellar, beaten, questioned and held for several hours, the report said.
Israel has been carrying out a bombing campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon and has also sent its troops across the border.
The Israeli military pounded Beirut again on Thursday.
Last year, a journalist was killed and six other reporters, including two from AFP, were wounded by Israeli shelling while covering the cross-border fighting in southern Lebanon.