A group of masked armed men broke into the building of Ecuador's TC Television company in the city of Guayaquil and took the presenters hostage live on air, reported El Universo.

The attack was carried out Tuesday at 2:20pm local time, the newspaper wrote. According to it, about 20 armed men entered the television building. Journalists in the building informed about the invasion of these armed men through SMS and contacted the police. Some people hid in toilets and offices.

Upon entering the building, the perpetrators planted explosives at the entrance of the editorial office. Then they broke into the building and took journalists and other employees of the TV station hostage.

El Universo showed footage showing these attackers pointing their weapons at people in the studio, some of whom were lying on the floor.

One of the gunmen said that the decision to go live was made so that "they know that we are not playing with the mafia." The attackers demanded to give them loudspeakers and the opportunity to speak live, wrote Ecuavisa.

The criminals showed that they have weapons and explosives. Also, they pointed a gun at journalist Jose Luis Calderon, and placed an explosive in his jacket pocket, reported Ecuavisa.

At around 2:30pm, a series of explosions were heard in the studio from where the news program was to be broadcast, El Universo wrote. After that, the employees of the aforesaid TV company told the attackers not to shoot. But, as Ecuavisa reported, shooting started in the studio.

But later, it became known that the TC Television employees, who were taken hostage by the drug cartel militants, were released as a result of the raid by the Ecuadorian police. This information was shared in the Spanish-language section of social media.

The Ecuadorian police disarmed these gunmen and arrested them.