X Factor contestant Honey G was visibly shaken when a member of the audience ran on stage during her judges' feedback tonight.
The controversial act had been performing MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This and was waiting to hear what the show's mentors thought of her efforts when the stage invasion happened during Louis Walsh's comments.
Rapper Honey G looked startled by the man, who, dressed in a baseball cap, ran up behind her, grabbed her shoulders and tried to take her microphone. Judge Simon Cowell was quick to jump to his feet and check that she was alright as the man was escorted from the stage.
It was later revealed there had been five people involved in the incident.
An X Factor spokesperspn said: "There was a stage invasion by four men, with one further person in support. All five had been in the audience.
"They were spoken to by police and security and have now been removed from the studio."
YouTubers Trollstation tweeted their involvement, posting a video of the stage rush captioned: "X Factor invasion."
Earlier in the day they had tweeted: "planning a madness with @AminaMaz-- @Leeplumberdj @BMWjarvo @Theirishgeek80 @Stine----KID"
On their YouTube channel, Trollstation describe themselves as "the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
"Trollstation is a YouTube channel specialising in bizarre and often surreal pranks performed on unwitting members of the public.
"Our content is intentionally provocative & controversial with the aim to get reactions from the general public in the name of comedic satire. Trollstation is a collective of social misfits playing mad mind games on the public."
Founding member Daniel Jarvis, from Gravesend, was jailed in May for a July 2015 stunt gone wrong in which he and Endrit Ferizolli, 20, Ebenezer Menzah, 29, and Helder Gomes, 23, carried out a fake heist at the National Portrait Gallery and then moved on to Tate Britain to stage a fake robbery and kidnapping, causing chaos in the process.
According to Kent Online, District Judge Mike Snow said while passing sentence: "I was told that the defendants believed what they were doing was funny. Their sense of humour is warped."
Jarvis and Gomes have previous convictions for a pitch invasion at a Tottenham Hotspurs and Partizan Belgrade match in 2014, and Gomes had another previous conviction for carrying out a fake break up with a stranger in a coffee shop in which he threw a box containing underwear and a sex toy on the floor in front of her.
Head judge Simon Cowell said after tonight's stunt: "I thought that was part of the act for a moment. That's what you create, people go crazy for you."
Presenter Dermot O'Leary said: "Obviously we had a stage invasion, three punks thought they could come on and take on Honey G, but could they?"
She replied: "I don't think so."
The programme last experienced a stage invasion in 2009 when Calvin Harris stormed the stage with a pineapple on his head while Jedward were performing.
The X Factor returns for the results show on Sunday at 8pm on ITV.
