Viewers watching a morning news broadcast in Virginia were suddenly plunged into horror when gunshots erupted live on the air and two young journalists were killed by a former colleague.

Reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were conducting what should have been a routine television interview near Smith Mountain Lake on Aug. 26, 2015, when Vester Lee Flanagan II opened fire.

The shocking attack unfolded during a live broadcast for WDBJ7, leaving viewers watching from home to hear the gunfire and Parker’s screams before Ward’s camera crashed to the ground.

Parker had been interviewing Vicki Gardner about tourism at Bridgewater Plaza, a shopping and recreation complex in Moneta, Virginia, when the shooting began.

Gardner was also shot but survived.

Flanagan, who had worked at WDBJ7 under the professional name Bryce Williams, had previously been fired from the station after workplace problems and allegations of disruptive behavior.

In an especially disturbing twist, Flanagan recorded the attack from his own point of view and later posted footage of the shooting on social media.

The video showed him approaching Parker, Ward and Gardner as the live interview was underway.

Seconds later, gunfire erupted.

Ward’s camera fell to the ground during the chaos, but the station’s live feed briefly continued broadcasting the horrifying scene.

Parker and Ward were pronounced dead following the attack.

The killings devastated their colleagues at WDBJ7, where both journalists had been building promising careers.

The tragedy became even more heartbreaking when it emerged that Parker had been in a serious relationship with fellow WDBJ7 journalist Chris Hurst.

Their relationship had largely been kept private, but Hurst revealed after Parker’s death that the couple had recently moved in together and had been planning a future.

“We didn’t share this publicly, but [Alison] and I were very much in love,” Hurst wrote at the time. “We just moved in together. I am numb.”

He said the couple had been together for nearly nine months and had discussed getting married.

“We wanted to get married,” he said. “We just celebrated her 24th birthday.”

Hurst described Parker as “the most radiant woman I ever met” and said she deeply loved her family, including her parents and brother.

Ward, meanwhile, was also remembered as a beloved member of the WDBJ7 newsroom whose life and career were cut tragically short.

The shooting became one of the most shocking moments ever captured during a live American television broadcast, with viewers unknowingly witnessing the final moments of two young journalists simply doing their jobs.

Flanagan fled after the attack and later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as authorities closed in on him.

The horrifying case remains remembered not only for the fact that the murders happened during a live broadcast, but also because the killer deliberately recorded and shared his own footage of the attack online.