CNN reporter Bill Weir was hit with tear gas during a live report on a caravan of Central American immigrants approaching the Mexico-Guatemala border Friday, calling the scene "utter chaos."

“The policemen are forcing the gates back after firing either smoke canisters. I didn’t smell tear gas. But an incredibly frightening scene to be in the middle of this scrum of people,” Weir said Friday afternoon from Tapachula, Mexico, during a live report.

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“You can see all the shoes that have been lost in the trample. There’s a man in front of me — suffering from heat stroke, maybe having a heart attack. It’s so hard to tell.”

"Oh, tear gas. Tear gas. The canister landed literally two feet from me," Weir reported later. "No, no, no, no, doesn’t throw rocks!" he could be heard urging the crowd.

"Bill, if you need to go, we understand. We understand if you need to go. Stay safe," CNN host Ana Cabrera urged.

"All right. I got to get to safety. I’ll check back in," Weir replied as the report ended.

The caravan's attempt to make it to the U.S. border is being weaponized by President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE in the run up to November's midterm elections, which are now less than three weeks away.

Trump is portraying the approximately 4,000 Central Americans in the caravan as a direct threat to the United States's public safety and national security, and has threatened to send the military to the southern border to stop them.

“I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S.,” Trump tweeted on Thursday.

“In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught — and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!” he later tweeted.