Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was attacked and punched by a man in central Copenhagen, Ritzau news agency reported, citing police and the minister's office - the chairman. This was reported by Reuters, quoted by BTA.
"Prime Minister Frederiksen was beaten tonight in the square "Kultorvet" by a man who was subsequently arrested. She is shocked by what happened," the prime minister's office said, without revealing more details.
Representatives of the Copenhagen police and Danish security services confirmed the incident to Reuters, but declined to provide further details.
According to a local resident quoted by Reuters, Frederiksen left after the incident and was apparently unharmed.
"She seemed a bit stressed," Søren Kergor, who works at a cafe in the square, told the agency after seeing the prime minister leave after the incident under a security escort.
The attack took place just two days before Danes went to the polls to vote in the European elections. Three weeks ago, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was seriously injured in an assassination attempt, Reuters notes.
Danish Minister of the Environment Magnus Hoenicke wrote on the social network "X": "Mette is understandably in shock after the attack. I can say that all of us who are in close contact with her are shocked.
Earlier in the day, Frederiksen took part in a campaign event for the leading candidate of the Danish Social Democratic Party, Christel Schaldemose. The two had separated before the incident and the prime minister did not carry out campaigning activities on the "Kultorvet" square, where the attack took place, Schaldemose told Ritzau.
In a message in X, Denmark's Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt described the case as "an attack on our entire democracy", while the environment and defense ministers also shared their shock at the attack.
"In the year of the 175th anniversary of Danish democracy, it is not acceptable for the country's prime minister to be greeted with fists instead of arguments," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løcke Rasmussen wrote in X.
The country's finance minister, Jeppe Bruce Christensen, described the case as terrifying for Danish society and democracy.
Foreign politicians also reacted to the incident on social networks. "This should be condemned in the strongest possible terms," Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilstrom wrote in X, and Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said he was "deeply shocked by the attack" over his colleague and friend.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also condemned the attack: "It goes against everything we believe in and fight for in Europe," she wrote in X.