Mel C defends Tomlinson after airport arrest

Singer Melanie C, best known as Mel C, has defended One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson after his arrest following a row with a paparazzo and two girls at the Los Angeles International Airport.

Tomlinson was released on bail after the Friday arrest.

Mel C sympathises with him because she has been in a similar situation where the "frenzied" attention left her unable to think clearly, reports mirror.co.uk.

"It can be quite traumatic, that sounds a little overdramatic," Mel C said on "Good Morning Britain".

"There are times, I should imagine with Louis and what the boys have been through, that they have been at the height of their success and they are constantly pursued.

"And I think you come into an environment like that and it's quite frenzied and it's quite chaotic and you have a fight-or-flight response sometimes," she added.

Following the incident, Tomlinson, who was with his girlfriend Eleanor Calder, was arrested and booked for simple battery.

He was originally released on $20,000 bail but won't have to pay out unless he fails to attend court in Los Angeles on March 29.

Mel C said: "I know it's a very long time since I've been in that situation but I had one time many years ago."

"It was towards the end of my time with the Spice Girls, and I was pursued in a car and I actually ended up hitting another car because you don't think," she said.

"You're not in a sensible frame of mind, you are in that fight-or-flight response. I really feel for Louis. Obviously he needs some protection and he shouldn't really have been left in that situation.

"You have to try and control yourself as much as you can but we are all human," she added.

--IANS

sas/rb/mr