Protesters get more than they bargain for when Andrew Bolt bashes back

CONTROVERSIAL columnist and TV personality Andrew Bolt has laid into masked protesters who set upon him in Melbourne.

Andrew Bolt fights back against a masked protester at a Melbourne restaurant.

CONTROVERSIAL columnist and TV personality Andrew Bolt has “clobbered” a group of masked protesters who set upon him in Melbourne yesterday.

On his TV program last night, Bolt explained how he was about to launch a book on US President Donald Trump at a restaurant in Carlton, in the city’s inner north, when a woman asked to take a selfie with him.

Before they could take the photo, two masked protesters set upon Bolt, spraying his face and suit with what he described as “sticky liquid with glitter and dye”.

Andrew Bolt punches a masked protester.

The protesters may have got more than they bargained for because Bolt quickly retaliated, punching one of the attackers repeatedly.

“Bad luck for them, of course; I don’t do running and hiding,” he told his viewers on his Sky News program The Bolt Report on Tuesday night.

The conservative columnist screened security camera footage of the altercation on his show, freezing on the faces of each of his attackers as well as a third man who filmed the ambush.

“Police are now looking for this young man, who will have a big bruise on the left side of his face and another bruise between his legs, for which I apologise, I guess, but I don’t really fight nice if I’m pushed too far.”

Andrew Bolt, centre, is set upon by two protesters. The man on the right films the altercation.

Andrew Bolt stumbles on a table as the attackers flee.

On his popular blog, Bolt described the protesters as members of the “fascist Left”.

“Watch the fascist Left attack me and get clobbered. Luckily the cameras do not capture me kicking one between the legs. I cannot have my children see me acting like a thug,” he wrote.

WATCH: Bolt calls out masked Left-wing fascists after a cowardly attack in Melbourne. They got a lot more back than they expected. pic.twitter.com/6IsxyIPKUu

— The Bolt Report (@theboltreport) June 6, 2017

Bolt was at Il Gambero restaurant in Lygon St to launch the book The Art of the Impossible: A Blog History of the Election of Donald J Trump by economics academic Steve Kates.

Bolt encouraged anyone who recognised the attackers to phone North Melbourne police on 03 8379 0800.

Andrew Bolt on the set of his Sky News show The Bolt Report. Picture: Andrew Henshaw