Hollie-May Saker 'Punches' Paris Protester

A British model has admitted that she punched a protester after feminist activists interrupted her on the catwalk at a show at Paris Fashion Week.

Hollie-May Saker, 18, was forced to shake off the hand of a protester who grabbed her as she appeared in the Nina Ricci show.

TV footage showed topless activists from Ukrainian group Femen climb onto the catwalk and rush to the front of the stage just as Saker was reaching her turn.

One of them grabbed her wrist as she started to head to the backroom, but the Liverpool-born model casually shook off the approach and continued with her walk.

Security guards then grabbed the protester and another that had managed to get up onto the catwalk, and bundled them off the stage.

Both the activists had appeared on the podium semi-naked with slogans on their body, apparently protesting at the fashion industry's over-sexualisation of women.

One of the slogans read: "Models don't go to brothels."Afterwards, an angry Saker let rip about what had happened on her Twitter account.

She stormed: "Have fun scrubbing that **** of your body silly ***** never been to a brothel in my life."

Another Tweet read: "[Fuming] that ***** ruined my walk."

Speaking after the incident, she told the Liverpool Echo: "I punched her. I didn’t mean to, but she grabbed my arm and I just wanted to get her off me.

"I was the 19th girl out of the catwalk and I could hear screaming behind me.

"The next thing I just saw half-naked women with black marker pen scrawled across their bare chests, and that's when she came at me.

"I was so angry, but I knew I had to be professional so I carried on walking with a bit of sassiness.

"My Scouseness came out a bit, but I wish it had come out a bit more.

"Thinking about it now I wish I'd pushed them both off the stage because they ruined my favourite show."

Afterwards many on Twitter praised the young model for keeping her composure amid a charged scene.

Kaitlin Monroe wrote: "shout out to @holliemaysaker for handling that pointless protest gracefully."

Another, calling themselves Dimitris, tweeted: "This is definitely going down in modeling history. You handled it really well! They both looked so stupid."

Others criticised her reaction, saying she should have been more receptive to their feminist stance.

One tweeter, calling themselves agnesb, said: "@holliemaysaker calling her "a silly *****" is j wrong. no name-calling amongst women I say.we're all on the same side!"

International women's group Femen has carried out a string of direct action protests, including interrupting visits by Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel.