Shoe attack on Indian Interior minister Palaniappan Chidambaram

Palaniappan Chidambaram was speaking in Delhi about 1984 riots in which hundreds of Sikhs were killed.

The minister leaned back to avoid the hurled shoe which narrowly missed him.

Witnesses say the minister appeared unfazed by the attack which was similar to a shoe-throwing attack on former US President Bush in Iraq in December.





The reporter was identified by local television channels as Jarnail Singh, a veteran correspondent with one of India's largest newspapers, the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.

He was taken away by plainclothes police who tried to stop him from speaking to other journalists. It is not clear whether he has been formally arrested.

Soon afterwards, Mr Singh told TV news reporters that he regretted throwing the shoe but he felt that Mr Chidambaram was dodging the question.

"I just wanted to ask him how justice will be done, but he was not interested in answering the questions," he told CNN-IBN during a telephone interview from police custody.

"I don't think it was the right way, what I have done, but the issue is right."

The Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at Mr Bush won worldwide fame but was jailed for three years earlier this month.