TV presenter punched live on air during protest

Demonstrations triggered by reports of two alleged rapes of teenage girls by police

A journalist was knocked unconscious live on air after being punched in the face while covering a feminist protest.

Video footage published by TV network ADM 40 shows reporter Juan Manuel Jimenez speaking to the camera as women yell at him during a march in Mexico City.

Mr Jimenez can be seen standing in the middle of the crowd as women throw glitter at him and a woman holding a young girl’s hand shouts into the reporter’s microphone.

As the reporter continues speaking to the camera, a man dressed in a white T-shirt and blue baseball cap walks up to him and punches him in the face before calmly walking away.

Mr Jimenez can be seen lying on the ground seemingly unconscious as protesters chase after his attacker.

At the beginning of the clip, shaky footage also shows another protester with their face covered who appears to grab the journalist and hit him in a separate incident.

In other footage shared on social media, news presenter Melissa del Pozo de Milenio of the Milenio Televisión network also appears to be attacked by protesters.

The journalist can be seen struggling with a woman dressed in black who has her face covered.

The camera then focuses on two women who appear to be stabbing a sign.

Demonstrators painted the word “rapists” on the wall of a nearby police station and phrases such as “they don’t take care of us” and “rape state” on Mexico City’s Angel of Independence monument.

The feminist protests were triggered by allegations that two teenage girls were raped by a group of policemen.

Women march Mexico City on 16 August sparked by two alleged rapes by police (AP/Marco Ugarte)

The demonstrations have become known as the “glitter protests” after marchers doused the city’s police chief in pink glitter.

Violence against women is a serious problem in Mexico.

Human Rights Watch says Mexican laws “do not adequately protect women and girls against domestic and sexual violence”.

A 2019 report said provisions in Mexican law, including those that make the severity of punishments for sexual offences contingent upon the supposed chastity of the victim, “contradict international standards”.

Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman elected to head the city’s government, tweeted that the attorney general’s office of the metropolis will investigate and bring charges against those who attacked journalists.