French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been grabbed and almost knocked to the ground by a man in the southern French town of Brax.
The attacker yanked Sarkozy's suit by the shoulder and knocked him to the ground while he reached over a metal barricade to greet onlookers, AP reported on Thursday.
The assailant, a 32-year-old Frenchman, was not armed, said a national police official, who declined to be named due to police policy.
The attacker has been detained and interrogated in the nearby town of Agen.
He lives in the Lot-et-Garonne region and works in the theater business.
There was no immediate comment from the French president's office.
Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 2002 during a military parade.
