KIEV, (AFP) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who was briefly hospitalized after being knocked down during an election campaign scuffle on Friday, was in fact hit by nothing more dangerous than an egg, according to TV pictures.
With the campaign for next month's presidential election in Ukraine becoming increasingly acrimonious, Yanukovich accused his nationalist rival of responsibility for the incident, which occurred as he was alighting from a bus in the western town of Ivano-Frankovsk.
Both police and the prime minister's entourage had said several projectiles were thrown by hostile demonstrators at Yanukovich, knocking him over. They said the missiles included stones, or possibly camera batteries, as well as eggs.
However video screened by two TV stations, and shot from an angle which gave a full view of Yanukovich as he fell, made it clear that he had only been hit by one object -- an egg.
The prime minister, who is the candidate favoured by incumbent President Leonid Kuchma to succeed him, blamed supporters of his opponent Viktor Yushchenko, but the latter's party indignantly denied responsibility.
Yushchenko, who heads the nationalist Our Ukraine grouping, has already accused the prime minister's supporters of involvement in another incident: an alleged attempt to poison him.
After the opposition leader was hospitalized last week for a mysterious infection, he accused the government of causing it, although doctors in Austria who treated him said it could have been food poisoning.
After Friday's incident a 17-year-old boy was arrested for throwing an egg at the prime minister.
In opinion polls, Yushchenko is slightly ahead of Yanukovich. The election takes place on October 31.