Anderson Cooper describes Egypt attack

Anderson Cooper has spoken out about being attacked by a mob while covering the protests in Egypt.

The CNN anchor told CBS's The Late Show With David Letterman that the incident in Cairo happened when his team tried to talk to a pro-Mubarak group.

"Our job is to talk to people on all sides but all of a sudden a guy went to grab our camera and from then it became a free-for-all," he said on Wednesday's show.

"People came from all around, surrounding us, punching us, kicking us, trying to rip the clothes off my female producer. We immediately, obviously, turned around and tried to walk back to a more secure location but they continued to follow."

He went on to say: "My instinct is to punch back but I would start to slap back and realised this would make it worse. My adrenaline was pumping so much; I've never really been in a fight like this or been attacked by a mob like this.

"I was saying, 'Calm down, calm down' as if they could understand what I'm saying, which was sort of a waste of time..."

Cooper added that he tried to use his basic local language skills but later learned that instead of saying, 'Peace, peace' he had been shouting, 'God willing, God willing'.

The news reporter left Egypt last week.