I wanna hold your hand: Trudeau whisked away from adoring Manila mob

By David Ljunggren
MANILA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau had to be whisked away from a summit by police
bodyguards on Thursday as hundreds of excited journalists and
staff swarmed around him in a bid to take photos and say hello.
Trudeau, a charismatic young politician who won Canada's
election last month promising "sunny ways" and respect, has
generated rock star-like enthusiasm this week during meetings in
Turkey and Manila.
As he left a news conference at the end of an Asia-Pacific
summit, dozens of mainly young local reporters and conference
staff gathered around him in a hallway.
Trudeau initially smiled and waved and shook a few hands but
the crowd suddenly grew larger and he was soon surrounded by a
couple of hundred people taking pictures and shouting his name.
"He held my hand!" shrieked one woman. Another woman broke
away, looking close to collapse.
The prime minister started to look nervous and his
bodyguards formed a tight group and rushed him out of the
conference centre, shutting the doors behind them.
"Things got out of hand. But we expected it because he is
one of the best-looking delegates," said security officer Rico
Mojica, who asked a friend to take a video of Trudeau while he
tried to pacify the crowd.
Trudeau escaped unscathed and waved to a few more people
before climbing into his official limousine and driving off.
"He's so cute - and very intelligent," gushed local reporter
Katherine Imson when asked why she had joined the crowd.
Trudeau is the son of former Liberal prime minister Pierre
Trudeau and has been in the public eye all his life.
At the news conference a few minutes earlier, asked about
the public adulation he generated, Trudeau said he had long
learned how to ignore people's perceptions of him.
"There were a lot of people who liked my father and liked me
for reasons that were entirely unrelated to who I actually was
and I had to learn to set aside positive impressions that were
not grounded in reality," he said.