Masked gunmen broke into a live television studio in Ecuador and threatened terrified staff, the BBC reports.

Employees were forced on to the floor during the broadcast by the public television channel TC in the city of Guayaquil before the live feed cut out.

Police say they later freed all the staff and made 13 arrests, showing off weapons recovered.

At least 10 people have been killed since a 60-day state of emergency began in Ecuador on Monday.

The emergency was declared after a notorious gangster vanished from his prison cell. It is unclear whether the incident at the TV studio in Guayaquil was related to the disappearance from a prison in the same city of the boss of the Choneros gang, Adolfo Macías Villamar, or Fito as he is better known.

In neighbouring Peru, the government ordered the immediate deployment of a police force to the border to prevent any instability crossing into the country.