France's two rivals for the presidency have traded accusations after a woman was manhandled for protesting against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen's ties to Russia's Vladimir Putin, reports BBC News.
The protester was dragged along the floor after she held up a heart-shaped sign showing Ms Le Pen meeting the Russian leader in 2017.
Hitting back at critics, Ms Le Pen said people should be outraged that election press conferences could be disrupted.
The vote will be held on April 24th.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, came runner-up to Emmanuel Macron in the first round, held last Sunday, but opinion polls say she is only a few points behind the incumbent president in the race for the run-off.
Mr Macron has accused his rival of holding "authoritarian" views, belying the more moderate image she has maintained during the presidential campaign. He has previously condemned her policies as racist.
Ms Le Pen said on Thursday that France had never had a president who had exhibited as much authoritarianism as Mr Macron, because of his handling of yellow-vest protesters. She went on to say that if she became president there could be a referendum on bringing back the death penalty.
The protester, later identified as a Green councillor, was seen being pulled to the floor by one man in a suit before another man pulled her out of the room by the arm.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin accused Ms Le Pen of wrongly blaming a police officer for what happened and called on her to apologise to the police: "Have the honesty to admit the individual who drags the protester along the floor is a member of your own security detail."
The far-right candidate refused to apologise and said the protester had been tackled by an interior ministry protection officer. "It was a policeman who challenged that woman and who got hurt in the process," she said. "He got injured while detaining her and couldn't complete the job of removing her."
While Ms Le Pen appeared to be talking about a man in a suit who initially bundled the protester to the ground, French media identified the man who dragged her out of the room as a member of the National Rally security team.
"What people should be outraged about is that we can't hold a second-round campaign without press conferences being disrupted, without us being attacked, without us being threatened," Ms Le Pen complained.