This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

An attendee to the US Republican party convention was removed from the conference after allegedly throwing nuts at a black camerawoman from CNN, saying "this is how we feed animals".

The incident was reported by the former MSNBC news anchor David Shuster, who tweeted: "GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African-American CNN camerawoman + saying "This is how we feed animals."

It is not known whether the evicted attendee was an official delegate or a lay party supporter.

The political website Talking Points Media (TPM) reported a statement from CNN confirming that an incident involving one of their employees had occurred, but it gave no further details.

"CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment," the statement read.

The conference, held in Tampa, Florida, has already been dogged by a number of issues, including the cancellation of the inaugural day on Sunday due to the tropical storm Isaac, which has developed into a hurricane.

Divisions between Republican party factions erupted into the public arena when supporters of failed Republican nominee Ron Paul stormed out of the convention in protest over rule changes voiding the selection of Paul delegates at the conference.

The Republican party has yet to comment on the incident.