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Attacker grabs Sarkozy (VIDEO)

PARIS — A man in a crowd yanked French President Nicolas Sarkozy by the shoulder yesterday and nearly knocked him to the ground before being tackled by security officers and detained.

The unusually aggressive incident occurred as the president shook hands with a crowd in the southern French town of Brax.

The man’s identity and motives were unclear. French police said he was detained and being held in the nearby town of Agen.

Images broadcast on French television showed Sarkozy reaching over a metal barricade to greet onlookers when a man grabbed the president’s suit by the shoulder and pulled him toward the crowd.

Sarkozy started to lose his balance and fall, then immediately recoiled and righted himself.

Security officers pulled the assailant to the ground.

Sarkozy’s office did not comment.