Incoming! The moment Vegemite sandwich was thrown at Australia's prime minister as she was mobbed by schoolchildren



Julia Gillard was at Marsden High School, south of Brisbane, for Biggest Morning Tea event

Alleged sandwich thrower, student Kyle Thomson, 16, has been suspended for 15 days



In Iraq, they throw shoes at presidents - but in Australia today, the weapon of choice was a sandwich when it was hurled at prime minister Julia Gillard by a school student when she was mobbed by children.



Ms Gillard was also on the receiving end of teenagers' cat calls and boos, with several shouting 'Loser'.



The missile - believed to be a Vegemite sandwich - didn't actually hit the British-born Labour leader but it landed with a plop on the ground near her when she was mobbed by the students in Queensland.

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The missile - believed to contain Vegemite - didn't hit Labour leader Julia Gillard but it landed with a plop on the ground near her when she was mobbed by the students in Queensland today

The sandwich was thrown by a student at Australia's prime minister as she was mobbed by abusive children at a school south of Brisbane

Some of the students lining a footpath leading into the Marsden High School, south of Brisbane, yelled 'Loser' and 'Liar' as she stepped from her car and her security team had to hurry her through the crowd of angry students.



Teachers ran from the building and tried to calm the students who, according to one by-stander 'went crazy'.

Ms Gillard was at the school to attend an event called the Biggest Morning Tea and meet community leaders.



'It was complete chaos,' said one spectator, while Michelle Campbell, president of the Marsden High Parents and Citizens committee, said the incident was 'disappointing'.

Some of the students lining a footpath leading into Marsden High School yelled 'Loser' and 'Liar' as the PM stepped from her car



Ms Gillard was at the school to attend an event called the Biggest Morning Tea and meet community leaders

She added, however, that 'kids will be kids'.



Ms Gillard has called a General Election for next September, but her Party is a long way behind in the polls.



One commentator on a website observed that today's incident 'serves to show that her bad performance as leader of our country has spread even to the kids' consciousness'.



The Prime Minister's office later declined to comment on the incident.

School officials said later that the student suspected of throwing the sandwich at Ms Gillard, named as 16-year-old Kyle Thomson, had since been suspended for 15 days.



The teenager denied that he had thrown the sandwich, claiming he had tried to stop another student from throwing it.



He told the Channel 9 TV network that he had hit one sandwich from the other boy's hand but had failed to stop him hurling another at Ms Gillard.



His mother, who has not been named, told the network: 'Kyle's no angel, don't get me wrong, but I think there's a lot more to the circumstances.'



She added: 'I'm sure she's had a lot more than a sandwich thrown at her throughout her life.'



Ms Gillard, who replaced Kevin Rudd in a partyroom coup in June 2010, has seen her leadership under threat for most of the past two years

Ms Gillard said later that the incident was just 'high jinks'.



'One kid thought they might just be a little bit naughty,' she said.



In March, Julia Gillard was re-elected unopposed after calling a leadership ballot.

Her predecessor Kevin Rudd, whom Gillard ousted in an internal party coup in 2010, had been expected to attempt to replace her.

But at the very last moment, he announced he would not contest the ballot.

In what some commentators described as 'farcical' it resulted in no vote taking place and Wales-born Ms Gillard being re-elected unopposed as leader of the Labor Party.

It was the second time in 13 months that the prime minister had called and survived a leadership election.

It came after Ms Gillard had earlier delivered a historic national apology in Parliament to the thousands of unwed mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their babies for adoption over several decades.

More than 800 people, many of them in tears, heard the apology in the Great Hall of Parliament House and responded with a standing ovation.

Senior minister Simon Crean brought leadership unrest to a head earlier today by calling on his government colleagues to sign a petition to force a ballot if Gillard, who was born in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, refused to call one.

The leadership challenge followed months of slipping polls and internal tensions that put her minority Labor government on course to be swept away at September elections.

'This is not personal. It's about the party, the future of the country,' said senior Labor minister Simon Crean at the time, calling the challenge to break a deadlock between Gillard and chief rival Mr Rudd.

Gillard, who replaced Rudd in a partyroom coup in June 2010, has seen her leadership under threat for most of the past two years and her minority government has been unable to turn around a long-running slump in opinion polls, fuelled in part by internal instability, as well as flagging economic conditions.