"A kind of Cinderella story turned on its head."
That's just one of the ways international media described the dramatic incident when Prime Minister Julia Gillard was dragged to her car by her security detail following a protest outside Canberra's Lobby restaurant yesterday.
Footage of Ms Gillard's unceremonious exit from the Australia Day event was splashed across televisions, newspapers and websites around the world, with some news organisations focusing on the fact the Australian leader lost her shoe during the chaos.
"A fancy dinner. A hurried escape. A shoe left behind, found and offered back by an unlikely suitor," The New York Times reported.
"The story ... called to mind a kind of Cinderella story turned on its head, a combustible mixture of race, social status and the juxtaposition of a leader dining in a glass-walled restaurant only steps from a decades-old protest encampment," the paper continued.
The BBC said the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had to be "rescued" from the protesters, while Italy's news agency Agenzia Giornalistica Italia said she was "fleeing enraged aborigines".
The Sun News in Canada noted Ms Gillard lost her "blue-suede shoe" during the commotion - perhaps alluding to the 1950s rock and roll track Blue Suede Shoes, famously sung by Elvis Presley.
Other news organisations noted Ms Gillard's look as she was rushed to her car by her protection officers, pointing out that she looked "visibly rattled" and "frightened".
New Zealand's Newstalk ZB said images of Gillard looking afraid "could have a lasting impact" on her reputation.
"They're going to think 'well, we've got a Prime Minister there who's frightened, and that's not really what we normally see here in Australia'," their Australian correspondent said.
But other media noted Ms Gillard told reporters later she was unscathed by the incident.
"I am made of pretty tough stuff and the police did a great job," Ms Gillard said yesterday.
Satirical news website Wonkette said the tent embassy was "as if the Native American seizure of Alcatraz Island back in 1969 had lasted not for 18 months, but for four decades".
"A great inspiration to Occupation Movements worldwide, of course," it continued.
Some news organisations also elaborated on the ongoing debates and tensions surrounding the country's relationship with aboriginal Australians.
"Australia Day marks the arrival of the first fleet of British colonists in Sydney on January 26, 1788. Many Aborigines call it Invasion Day because the land was settled without a treaty with traditional owners," the UK's Daily Mail reported.
"Relations between the Aboriginal community and Canberra's politicians have often been strained, with successive governments failing to overcome high rates of indigenous crime, poverty and poor health," London's Daily Telegraph noted, while Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency focused on health and social issues.
"Suicides are twice the national average, murders are six times as high and Aborigines are 11 times more likely to be imprisoned than other Australians. Most live on welfare and 60 per cent of Aboriginal pupils do not finish high school and only 12 per cent go on to some form of higher education," DPA wrote.
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