00 GMT).

“A man came by in the opposite direction and gave her a hard shove on the shoulder, causing her to fall to the side,” the newspaper quoted the woman as saying.

According to the witnesses, the prime minister then sat down at a nearby cafe.

They described the man as tall and slim, and said he had tried to hurry away but had not gotten far before being grabbed and pushed to the ground by men in suits.

Another witness, Kasper Jorgensen, told newspaper Ekstra Bladet that he had seen the man after he was tackled to the ground, saying that one of what he presumed to be part of the security service had put a knee on the man’s back.

“They had pacified him, and as he lay there, he looked confused and a little dazed,” Jorgensen told the newspaper.

A resident told the Reuters news agency Frederiksen was escorted away by security following the assault.

News of the assault was received with shock and condemnation by leaders across the political spectrum inside Denmark and abroad.

European Council President Charles Michel said he was “outraged by the assault” while European Parliament President Roberta Metsola urged Frederiksen to “keep strong” while adding in a post on X that “violence has no place in politics”.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also condemned what she called a “despicable act which goes against everything we believe and fight for in Europe”, in a statement to social media.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “an attack on a democratically elected leader is also an attack on our democracy”, while French President Emmanuel Macron called it “unacceptable” and wished Frederiksen “a speedy recovery”.

In 2019, Frederiksen became Denmark’s youngest prime minister and kept the post after emerging victorious in the 2022 general election.

“I must say that it shakes all of us who are close to her,” Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke said on social media.

“Something like this must not happen in our beautiful, safe and free country.

” Violence against politicians has become a theme in the run-up to the EU elections.

In May, a candidate from Germany’s Social Democrats was beaten and seriously injured while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament.

In Slovakia, the election campaign was overshadowed by an attack on Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, sending shockwaves through the country and Europe.