Graham Satchell, who worked for Channel TV before joining the BBC in the mid 90s, was overcome with emotion while he spoke in front of one of the memorials in the city following the terror attacks on Friday.
The 47-year-old,who lives in London, was talking about the hope he had seen in the French capital in the aftermath of the attacks in which more than 120 people were killed and many more left injured.
Mr Satchell’s voice breaks during the report and he looks away from the camera saying, ‘sorry, I’m so sorry’.
The father-of-three has been praised on social media for his ‘honest’, ‘authentic’ and ‘human’ reporting from the Place de la République where thousands of messages, flowers and candles have been left in tribute to those killed.
Mr Satchell later took to Twitter to apologise for what had happened on-screen, saying: ‘Thank you so much for all the kind tweets. Humbled by Parisienne response in last few days. It was just a moment – slightly mortified.’
Meanwhile, Anna Satchell, Mr Satchell’s mother, said that she and her husband Ron had not seen the live report, but she had heard about it from her son and was pleased that he was being supported by the public on social media.
‘He is probably quite concerned about it,’ she said.
‘Normally he is very professional and he manages to put the importance on other people so if he has broken down it must have affected him a lot.
‘It would have affected him anyway but he wouldn’t show it or have it in any of his report.’
The pair, who live in St Brelade, added that their son had been in Paris since Saturday and was due to arrive back in the UK yesterday.
The death toll in Paris currently stands at 129 people while another 415 people were admitted to hospital. Forty-two are in a critical condition.
