BRAX, France (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy was involved in a scuffle during a handshake tour Thursday when a man grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to pull him over a crowd barrier. (Scroll down for video)
Sarkozy, attending a meeting of mayors near the southern city of Toulouse, was moving down a line of residents and shaking hands when an unidentified man seized the fabric of his suit at the shoulder and yanked him aggressively.
In footage shown on several French news channels, body guards pulled the man back from the crowd and pinned him to the ground as Sarkozy, visibly shaken, looked on.
Police arrested the man, French media reported.
20 Years OfFreeJournalism
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
For two decades, HuffPost has been fearless, unflinching, and relentless in pursuit of the truth. Support our mission to keep us around for the next 20 — we can't do this without you.
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.
Thank you again for your support along the way. We’re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again.
Support HuffPostAlready contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Sarkozy, up for a reelection battle in 10 months, was involved in several verbal altercations in the first years of his presidency, including one incident during a walkabout when he told a man to "p*** off, loser."
(Reporting by Claude Canellas and Sophie Louet, writing by Nick Vinocur)