Man arrested after grabbing the bottom of a Spanish TV reporter live on air

Journalist Isa Balado was reporting in Madrid on the case of shopkeepers who were arrested for beating up a thief who tried to rob them. 

She was in the middle of a live report to the studio when a man approached her from behind and grabbed her bottom, asking what programme she worked for. 

"Isa, sorry to interrupt, did they just touch your butt?" her colleague in the studio asked. 

"Yes," said Balado, who turned to the man and asked "as much as you want to ask us which channel we work for, do you really have to touch my ass?" 

At first the 25-year old Romanian national laughed and denied he'd done anything wrong, then apologised and stared at her while the reporter begs him to let her do her job. 

Madrid police, alerted by the programme itself, arrested the man for a possible offence of sexual assault and took him to the Family and Women's Department of Madrid Police Headquarters.

They will now analyse the images and take statements from both the man and Balado.

The presenter of the programme said live on air: "This guy is an idiot" and asked the cameraman to focus on the man so he could see his face.

He had not moved far after the assault and was still standing next to the journalist, watching her as she tried to do her job. When she left, the man returned, this time touching her hair.

The channel has issued a statement saying it "rejects any form of harassment or aggression" and expressing its support for the reporter "after the absolutely intolerable situation she has suffered".

Several employees also spoke out to condemn the assault.