The former environment minister under ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, at risk of losing her seat at the National Assembly as President Emmanuel Macron's party gears up for a landslide victory, was taken to hospital, the team said.

News agency AFP showed pictures of the politician, widely known in France under the acronym "NKM", being thrown leaflets in the face by a man and lying on the pavement. The man in his fifties called her a "crappy bobo", a derisive term for an urban hipster, AFP said.