BBC news presenter 'caught napping' during live bulletin

London, Mar 10 (ANI): A BBC news presenter was seen napping at his desk during the live broadcast of a breakfast show.

The cameras caught the 50-year-old broadcaster Simon McCoy with his head resting on his folded arms just before 8.30 am when the BBC's Breakfast programme switched to the rolling news channel, the Daily Mail reported.

Quite what disturbed his slumbers remains a mystery, but he suddenly sat bolt upright and looked sheepish as he tried to regain his composure beside co-presenter Martine Croxall.

Following a number of mocking messages from his Twitter followers asking if he'd had a heavy night, McCoy eventually tweeted: "I was not asleep!"

But Croxall told her own followers on Twitter: "Intravenous caffeine now being administered to @simonmccoy."

"There's no such thing as an incident-free shift with @simonmccoy," she wrote.

Viewers continued to remark on the hilarious gaffe on the social networking site as the day went on.

"Did I just imagine that? £bbcnews cuts to the news desk and fella is asleep on the desk and jumps up in shock! Haha," one user called Vikki B tweeted.

"Never fall asleep at your desk, especially when you're a news anchor," another user Ismat Abidi added. (ANI)