Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler forcibly removed a Hawke's Bay Today photographer from a council building this morning.

Photographer Duncan Brown, who has taken photographs for Hawke's Bay Today for 30 years, was in the Waipawa building with a reporter chasing a story when Mr Butler spotted the media team and manhandled him.

He demanded Mr Brown and a reporter leave without giving an explanation as to why, and kept repeating "out".