The employee suing Olivier Martinez was taking photos of the actor

Los Angeles - The airport employee who has accused Olivier Martinez of battery was trying to take pictures of the actor.

The French actor has been accused of pushing a Los Angeles International Airport employee to the ground during an alleged altercation at the Tom Bradley International Terminal on Sunday.

Video footage obtained by TMZ shows the staff member had joined a scrum of paparazzi photographers surrounding the Dark Tide star, his wife Halle Berry, their son Maceo, 14 months, and her six-year-old daughter Nahla.

The footage shows the unnamed staff member pointing a cellphone at the 48-year-old star before Olivier allegedly pushed an empty car seat towards him, causing him to fall backwards.


(Greatstock/Splash)

The employee was taken to hospital complaining of abdominal pains and has now filed a battery report.

The couple - who married in July last year, four years after they started dating - and the children were travelling into Los Angeles after a Christmas trip to Paris.

This isn't the first time Olivier has been involved in a row.

In November 2012, he clashed violently with Halle's former boyfriend Gabriel Aubry - Nahla's father - but the pair reached a mutual decision not to pursue criminal charges for the little girl's sake after the model originally filed for a restraining order against the actor, claiming he had threatened to kill him during the dispute.

The row stemmed from Gabriel blocking Halle from moving to France with their daughter to escape attention from the paparazzi.