Monday May 28, 2018
By Isabella Fish
... only to tweet 'my wife tells me it was a huge clap of thunder' five minutes later
He became a household name for his incisive battlefield dispatches and in-depth reports of global conflicts like the Iraq war.
But
ITV international affairs editor Rageh Omaar was left red-faced after
he was apparently unable to tell the difference between an explosion and
thunder during the storm at the weekend.
Mr Omaar wrote alarmingly at 10.50pm on Saturday night: 'Big explosion in #westberkshire area near #Newbury'.
Then just six minutes later the
50-year-old told his 86,000 Twitter followers: 'Big white flash then
loud bang 5 seconds later between #Newbury and #wantages' His tweets
were met with surprise and his followers were quick to explain the cause
of bangs and flashes.One
person commented: 'Have you been drinking?' The Somali-born British
journalist and writer took a further six minutes to add: 'My wife tells
me it was a huge clap of thunder - hope she is right #Newbury.' Mr Omaar
was a BBC world affairs correspondent, where he made his name reporting
from Iraq.
He later clarified on Twitter: 'I was so
engrossed in game I was unaware of storms till I saw huge flash outside
window & seconds later bang. Given places my job takes me naturally
thought it was explosion!'
He moved to a
new post at Al Jazeera English in September 2006, where he presented
the nightly weekday documentary series Witness until January 2010.
From January 2013 he presented for ITV News and was later promoted as their International Affairs Editor.
Since
September 2017 he has occasionally presented the ITV Lunchtime News
including the ITV News London Lunchtime Bulletin and the ITV Evening
News.
Mr Omaar is married to Georgiana Rose 'Nina' Montgomery-Cuninghame, the daughter of Sir John Montgomery-Cuninghame of Corsehill.
The couple live in Chiswick, west London and have three children together.