The 27-year-old man failed to hit the Turkish leader in the incident late on Monday in the city of Seville.

Images shown on CNNTurk and carried by Spanish television showed the incident occurred as Erdogan, who is on an official visit to Spain, was about to get into his car after leaving Seville city hall.

A police spokesman said the man was a Syrian of Kurdish origin.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party is conducting a 25-year insurgency for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

In December 2008, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at then president George W. Bush at a press conference during the US leader's final visit to Iraq, protesting the six-year-old occupation with a cry of: "This is the farewell kiss you dog."

The 30-year-old man, considered a hero by many in the Arab world, was jailed for nine months.