AMSTERDAM: Dutch police detained two protesters who ran towards French President Emmanuel Macron in Amsterdam on Wednesday as his domestic troubles intruded once again on his state visit.

The dramatic arrests outside Amsterdam University came a day after demonstrators against Macron`s controversial pension reforms heckled him during a speech in The Hague.

The pomp of the first state visit to the Netherlands by a French president in 23 years has given Macron little respite from a wave of protests at home against increasing the French pension.

`For the honour of the workers and a better world even if Macron doesn`t like it, we are here,` one protester chanted, using the words of a French protest song, as he was pinned down by several security officials in Amsterdam.

The man ran towards Macron and was tackled to the ground, knocking over a man in uniform and landing in a heap of people, pool television and social media images showed. The incident happened just after the French president had stepped out of a limousine with Dutch King Willem-Alexander and was being greeted by Amsterdam`s mayor.

`We arrested two protesters for running towards the president. For disturbing public order and threatening,` Amsterdam police spokesperson Lex van Liebergen said. A man and a woman were arrested, one with a banner, she added.

Around 40 people protested when Macron left the university`s science faculty.

He then signed a `pact for innovation` with the Netherlands focusing on cooperation in semiconductors, quantum physics and energy.-AFP