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Mario Draghi suffers anti-ECB confetti attack

The Local Germany
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Mario Draghi suffers anti-ECB confetti attack
Brief moment of chaos: ECB president Mario Draghi is showered with confetti. Photo: DPA

A female protester stormed a press conference at the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB)in Frankfurt on Wednesday. Italian ECB president Mario Draghi is reportedly unhurt after being showered with confetti.

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The protester interrupted Draghi mid-sentence by jumping up on the desk and throwing confetti all over him.

She was then immediately seized by security guards, but they could not stop her repeating the phrase "end the ECB dictatorship".

Her T-shirt bore the pun "End the ECB dick-tatorship".

Security then ejected the young woman from the building.

After the brief moment of chaos, Draghi was escorted out of the room, but returned shortly afterwards seemingly unshaken and continued with the rest of the press conference.

The identity of the protester is currently unknown but Die Welt reported that the activist belonged to Femen, a radical feminist protest group.

The ECB have since announced they will investigate the incident, but declined to comment further any further. Reuters then tweeted that the protester had been detained for questioning by Frankfurt police.

At the conclusion of the press conference a small round of applause broke out, to which Draghi said: "Thank you, your applause is very comforting."

Anti-austerity protests hit Frankfurt in March at the official opening of the new ECB headquarters.

Demonstrators were widely condemned because of their protest's descent into violence, which caused a huge amount of damage to the city.

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