Hillary Clinton dodges shoe thrown at her while giving speech in Las Vegas

US federal authorities have detained a woman after she threw a shoe at former American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The incident happened when Clinton was speaking at an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries meeting at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Clinton, the former first lady and Democratic senator from New York, ducked and the shoe landed on stage. She flinched and moved to her left, yelling, “Was that a bat!”

Then, Clinton laughed off the incident, asking, “Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?”

“My goodness, I didn’t know that solid waste management was so controversial. Good thing she didn’t play softball like I did.”

The US Secret Service says the woman, who has not been identified, is being questioned and would face criminal charges.

After throwing the shoe, the woman turned around with her hands in the air and walked toward the back of the room.

The incident was reminiscent of a December 2008 shoe-tossing attack on former US President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad.

Moments before throwing his first shoe at Bush, Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi shouted in Arabic, “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!”

As stunned security agents, guards, officials, and journalists watched, the journalist then threw his second shoe, shouting in Arabic, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” That shoe also narrowly missed Bush as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stuck a hand in front of the former US president’s face to help shield him.