Shocking moment French politician Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is left unconscious after attack in Paris market

Out cold: A firefighter rushes to the aid of French politician Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
AFP/Getty Images
Eleanor Rose15 June 2017

This is the shocking moment a French conservative politician lay out cold in a Paris market after a man attacked her.

A firefighter rushed to the aid of Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, 44, former vice-president of the Republicans party and a former environment minister under Nicolas Sarkozy.

Ms Kosciusko-Morizet, known in France by the initials NKM, was leafleting for the Republicans ahead of Sunday's legislative elections when a man in a checked shirt jabbed his finger at her and tried to throw her leaflets in her face.

He called her a "dirty bobo" - a derisive term for bourgeois urban dwellers - and blamed her for Paris's socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, getting into power.

The man, described as in his fifties, tried to throw leaflets in the politician's face
AFP/Getty Images

Ms Koscuisko-Morizet had been defeated in Paris's 2014 mayoral race by Ms Hidalgo.

The politician toppled over and briefly lost consciousness in the fracas, while the man - described as in his fifties - fled.

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet on the floor of the Paris market
AFP/Getty Images

Ms Koscuisko-Morizet is standing for election in a central Paris constituency and is campaigning for the Republicans as they face polls on Sunday in which the party of President Emmanuel Macron, Republic on the Move, is set to make sweeping gains.

The Mayor of Paris has called the attack "intolerable" while Prime Minister Edouard Philippe was reported to have visited Ms Koscuisko-Morizet in hospital after the attack.

Earlier: The French politician is campaigning for the Republicans
AFP/Getty Images

"I condemn this unacceptable act of violence," he wrote on his Twitter account.

Paris prosecutors have said they are looking into the incident.

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