Fight or flight! British tourist whacks airport official over £3,000 fine

Footage of the Pakistani-born physicist’s attack went viral after it was filmed by another immigration officer. Taqaddas, from London, has been kept in a holding cell at Ngurah Rai International Airport since the incident on Saturday.

An immigration source at the Indonesian island said: “She slapped the officer, who is a respected guard.

“She touched immigration, which means touching representatives of the nation. So we reported it to the police.

“As soon as we detected that she had overstayed at the counter, she was already emotional with him.

“Now the woman concerned cannot be dispatched, cannot go home, because the violation must be processed first, in the form of payment of fines.

“By law, every overstayed tourist must pay a fine and if they are unwilling to they will be arrested.”

Immigration officers said Taqaddas arrived in the country in January but, under the terms of her visa, should have left by the middle of February.

In the one-minute clip, she flies into a fury after being confronted about her 160-day overstay as she tries to catch a flight to Singapore.

She is heard swearing at the 28-year-old border control man who had insisted she must pay about £20 for every day she overstayed.

Her attack came when she tried to snatch back her passport, only to see the officer pull it away.

Agung Sampurn, the airport’s public relations officer, said: “She pretended not to know that she had overstayed.”