French president Nicolas Sarkozy was involved in a scuffle during a handshake tour today when a man grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to pull him over a crowd barrier.
Mr Sarkozy, attending a meeting of mayors in the town of Brax near Toulouse, was moving down a line of residents and shaking hands when an unidentified man seized his suit at the shoulder and pulled at him aggressively.
Mr Sarkozy started to lose his balance and fall, then immediately recoiled and righted himself.
In footage shown on several French news channels, bodyguards pulled the man back from the crowd and pinned him to the ground as Mr Sarkozy, visibly shaken, looked on.
French police said the man was detained and being held in the nearby town of Agen.
Mr Sarkozy, up for a re-election 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 "piss off, loser".
Agencies