France boosts security for Socialist frontrunner
PARIS - Agence France-Presse
French Socialist Party candidate for the 2012 presidential elections, Francois Hollande, is covered in flour, after an unidentified woman ran on stage and threw the flour on Hollande. AP Photo
French presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande's security team was boosted from two to 14 bodyguards on Thursday after he was targeted in a flour-throwing attack.Campaign organiser Nacer Meddah told AFP the increase in security had been long-planned and that the new bodyguards had in fact been meeting with staff at the campaign's headquarters when the flour-throwing attack took place.
The bodyguards are provided by a branch of the French national police that guards senior officials, including the president.
Hollande, who is tipped by opinion polls to win the April-May two-round election, was doused in flour on Wednesday as he wrapped up a speech about housing problems in Paris.
His attacker, 45-year-old Lille resident Claire Seguin, was quickly detained and on Thursday police said she had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
