ISTANBUL  A protester threw a shoe at the managing director of the International Monetary Fund at the end of his speech at a university on Thursday in the prelude to I.M.F. and World Bank meetings in Istanbul.

The protester, Selcuk Ozbek, a student at Anadolu University, shouted, “Get out of the university, I.M.F. thief!” threw a white sneaker and ran toward the podium where the managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, stood. But televised images showed Mr. Ozbek being quickly tackled by security guards.

A female student then tried to unfurl a banner but was surrounded by security officials, allowing Mr. Strauss-Kahn to calmly answer a last question before leaving the hall.

Image Selcuk Ozbek threw a sneaker protesting a speech by the International Monetary Fund's chief in Istanbul. Credit... Salih Zeki Fazlioglu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Strauss-Kahn played down the episode. “I was glad to meet students and hear their views,” he said in a written statement released afterward. “This is what the I.M.F. needs to do, even if not everyone agrees with us. One thing I learned: Turkish students are polite. They waited until the end to complain.”