A woman rushed past security and threw a shoe at 
Hillary Clinton in Las Vegas on Thursday, but it missed and the former 
US secretary of state laughed off the incident.
The 
woman launched the projectile at the 66-year-old former First Lady as 
she was addressing a meeting of the Institute of Scrap Recycling 
Industries (ISRI).
Clinton, the presumed frontrunner 
for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, ducked as the object
 whizzed past at head height to the left of her.
"What 
was that, a bat?... Is that somebody throwing something at me?" Clinton 
said initially at the event at the Mandalay Bay hotel/casino, according 
to video footage by the local KTNV station.
Regaining 
her composure and sense of humor, she added: "Is that part of Cirque du 
Soleil?" -- a reference to the acrobatic dance troupe, which has several
 shows in Vegas.
"My goodness, I didn't know that solid
 waste management was so controversial. Thank goodness she didn't play 
softball like I did," she said, drawing laughter and cheers from the 
audience.
The blonde woman who threw the shoe was 
immediately escorted out of the hall, her hands in the air. She was 
later arrested, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
A spokesman for the organizers said the woman was not accredited for the meeting.
"Our
 staff denied her access before she later rushed past security. An ISRI 
staffer then stopped her as she approached the stage. She was then 
handed over to law enforcement," ISRI spokesman Mark Carpenter told AFP.
He
 added: "We are grateful that Secretary Clinton continued in a 
professional manner to share her firsthand knowledge and experience of 
how the recycling industry has a positive impact on the economy and 
environment."
A spokesman for Clinton did not immediately respond to request for confirmation or comment.
The
 most famous shoe-thrower of recent years was the Iraqi journalist who 
hurled his own footwear at president George W. Bush at a press 
conference in Baghdad in December 2008.
Muntazer 
al-Zaidi was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a head of
 state. That was reduced to one year on appeal, and his sentence was cut
 further for good behavior.
In February 2009 a German 
research student threw a shoe at Chinese premier Wen Jiabao during a 
speech at Cambridge University. Martin Jahnke, 27, was cleared of 
committing a public order offense.






