Hungarian Video Journalist Fired For Tripping Refugees Apologizes

In an open letter, Petra Laszlo said "something snapped in me" when a group of refugees rushed past police toward her and that she deeply regretted her actions.

The Hungarian video journalist who was fired after footage emerged of her tripping and kicking refugees as they ran past her apologized in an open letter that was published Thursday.

In the letter to conservative newspaper Magyar Nemzet, Petra Laszlo expressed deep regret for her actions, saying "something snapped in me" as refugees broke through a police barricade in the southern Hungarian border town of Röszke and rushed toward her:

I sincerely regret what happened. Just now I was able to collect myself enough to write about it....

Camera was shooting, hundreds of migrant broke through the police cordon, one of them rushed to me and I was scared...then something snapped in me....I just thought that I was being attacked and I have to protect myself.

It's hard to make good decisions at a time when people are in a panic and many hundreds of people rushing to her face.

Read the full letter here.

Freelance journalist Stephan Richter recorded the incident: A man carrying a young child in one arm and a bag in another is running through a blockade, and Laszlo is then seen sticking her leg into his path, causing them both to fall.

Video footage was also uploaded to India Video that depicts Lazslo kicking a young girl as she attempts to break from a crowd.

Not long after, a statement from the editor-in-chief of Lazslo's employer, N1TV, said she had been released.

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