French president slapped by by-stander during walkabout

TAIN-L'HERMITAGE: A bystander slapped French President Emmanuel Macron across the face during a trip to southeast France on Tuesday on the second stop of a nation-wide tour.

Images on social media and broadcast on the BFM news channel showed Macron approach a barrier to greet a man who, instead of shaking hands, slapped the 43-year-old across the face.

Macron's bodyguards quickly intervened and two people were arrested afterwards, local officials said.

"The man who tried to slap the president and another individual are currently being questioned by the gendarmerie," the regional prefecture said in a statement.

The incident in the village of Tain-l'Hermitage in the Drome region represents a serious security breach and overshadows the start of Macron's tour which he said was designed to "take the country's pulse."

"Around 1:15 pm (1115 GMT), the president got back into his car after visiting a high school and came back out because onlookers were calling out to him," the prefecture said.

"He went to meet them and that's where the incident happened," it added.

The centrist is widely expected to seek re-election in next year's presidential elections and polls show him with a narrow lead over far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

Around a dozen stops had been planned over the next two months, with Macron keen to meet voters in person after more than a year of crisis management linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.