Out ABC News correspondent Miguel Marquez beaten, his camera taken while covering protests in Bahrain

This is so horrifying.

ABC News correspondent Miguel Marquez, one of the highest-profile openly gay journalists on broadcast television, has been attacked in the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain. The attack occurred as government security forces moved in on protesters gathered at Pearl Square in Bahrain’s capital Manama.

He had been filing a report from where thousands of pro-democracy campaigners had gathered and was surrounded by what he described as a “gang of thugs,” who attacked him with billy clubs and snatched a camera from his hands.

Marquez, who has reported extensively from both Iraq and Afghanistan in the past, can be heard describing how the square was being bombarded with canisters of tear gas. Seconds later, he comes under physical attack and shouts, “No! No! No! Hey, I’m a journalist here!”

After fleeing the square, Marquez says, “I just got beat rather badly by a gang of thugs. I’m now in a marketplace near our hotel where people are cowering in buildings. These people are not screwing around. They’re going to clear that square tonight, ahead of any protest on Friday. The government clearly does not want this to get any bigger.” At least four protesters died in the early-morning assault on the camp.”

Here is video:

Marquez sent this message out via Twitter earlier today: Dear Govt of Bahrain, I’d like my camera back, with the disc inside and please do not copy or view material from it.

He is the latest high-profile foreign journalist assaulted in recent weeks while covering the growing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was punched about a dozen times in the head in Egypt and last week, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, filing a piece in Egypt for 60 Minutes, was beaten and sexually assaulted.