Romanian investigators have made a formal request for legal assistance from the UK in a criminal investigation into three British journalists from Sky News who ran a story on alleged gun running in the former communist country.

Authorities in Romania have accused the Britons of fabricating the story, which was broadcast on Sky News on August 7.

The three journalists, led by chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay, purportedly met three masked arms smugglers who showed them an assortment of weapons destined, they claimed, for the black market.