International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested for allegedly sodomizing a Manhattan hotel maid, a media report said.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, was on Saturday hauled off an Air France flight just moments before takeoff from the Kennedy Airport, the New York Post reported citing police.
Three Port Authority detectives pulled him from the plane's first-class cabin just two minutes before it was due to depart for Paris, it said.
Strauss-Kahn, who was expected to challenge Nicholas Sarkozy in the 2012 French presidential election, was turned over to the New York Police Department.
Strauss-Kahn was in his bathroom, when a 32-year-old housekeeper entered his room at the Sofitel on West 44th Street, apparently unaware he was still inside, the newspaper quoted sources as saying. He emerged naked, grabbed her and 'he jumps her', a source said.
He then allegedly threw the housekeeper on the room's bed and forced her to perform oral sex on him, the newspaper said quoting sources.
The maid managed to break free and ran to a hotel worker to tell what happened. Soon afterward, Strauss-Kahn got dressed and headed off to Kennedy Airport for his flight to Paris. He was taken off the plane without handcuffs, according to the Post.