French leader Macron slapped in face on visit to small town

French President Emmanuel Macron has been slapped in the face by a man during a visit to a small town in southeast France.

The incident on Tuesday prompted a wide show of support from politicians across the ideological spectrum.

A video shows a man slapping Macron in the face and the president's bodyguards pushing the aggressor away as the head of state was quickly rushed from the scene in the town of Tain-l'Hermitage.

The man appears to have cried out ``Montjoie! Saint Denis!'' a centuries-old royalist war cry, before finishing with ``A bas la Macronie,'' or ``Down with Macron.''

French broadcaster BFM-TV reports that two people have been detained by police.