US presidential front-runner ducks, laughs off hotel security breach

A woman rushed past security and threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton in Las Vegas on Thursday, but it missed and the former US secretary of state laughed off the incident.

The woman launched the projectile at the 66-year-old former US first lady as she was addressing a meeting of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

Clinton, the presumed front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, ducked as the object whizzed past at head height to her left.

"What was that, a bat? ... Is that somebody throwing something at me?" Clinton said initially at the event at the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino, according to video footage from local television station KTNV.

It showed that Clinton crouched to dodge an object as she stood on stage.

Regaining her composure and sense of humor, she added, "Is that part of Cirque du Soleil?" - a reference to the acrobatic dance troupe, which has several shows in the city.

"My goodness, I didn't know that solid waste management was so controversial. Thank goodness she didn't play softball, like I did," she said, drawing laughter and cheers from the audience.

Ilene Rosen, a witness and the wife of a conventioneer, was seated in the second row when she saw "something orange thrown from the side aisle with papers that fluttered in the air".

Rosen said the blonde woman walked down the aisle and got about six rows from the front of the seating area when she threw the object. The woman then turned around, put her hands in the air and walked toward the back of the room before ushers caught up with her, Rosen said.

The woman was later arrested, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

A spokesman for the organizers said the woman was not accredited for the meeting.

"Our staff denied her access; she later rushed past security. An ISRI staffer then stopped her as she approached the stage. She was then handed over to law enforcement," ISRI spokesman Mark Carpenter told AFP.

"We are grateful that Secretary Clinton continued in a professional manner to share her firsthand knowledge and experience of how the recycling industry has a positive impact on the economy and environment," he said.

A spokesman for Clinton did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation or comment.

The most famous shoe-thrower of recent years was the Iraqi journalist who hurled footwear at president George W Bush at a press conference in Baghdad in December 2008.

Muntazer al-Zaidi was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a head of state. That was reduced to one year on appeal, and his sentence was cut further for good behavior.

AFP-Reuters-AP