Performer Louis Tomlinson from One Direction sits with his friend in the front row at the Unique for Topshop Autumn/Winter 2013 collection during London Fashion Week, February 17, 2013.
Performer Louis Tomlinson from One Direction sits with his friend in the front row at the Unique for Topshop Autumn/Winter 2013 collection during London Fashion Week, February 17, 2013 Reuters

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson is making headlines again thanks to a recent arrest at LAX, but while some have slammed his actions as overtly aggressive, Mel C is fighting his corner. Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the former Spice Girl told hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, that paparazzi often provoke a 'fight-or-flight response'.

"It can be quite traumatic, that sounds a little over-dramatic," Mel C said. "There are times, I should imagine with Louis and what the boys have been through, that they have been at the height of their success and they are constantly pursued.

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"And I think you come into an environment like that and it's quite frenzied and it's quite chaotic and you have a fight-or-flight response sometimes.

Tomlinson was released on bail after a scuffle at the airport that saw him and girlfriend Eleanor Calder get in a physical altercation with a photographer and two female fans.

Chaos ensued at arrivals after Tomlinson got into a row with a pap trying to get a snap of the reunited couple at baggage reclaim following a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina – footage shows him wrestling Karl Larssen to the floor.

Moments later Calder tried to stop a female fan from filming the incident on her phone. Tomlinson came to her aid and the unidentified fan emerged from the scuffle with a cut over her eye.

Revealing her own harrowing experience, Mel C said that when you are in the thick of it, your self-control goes out the window. "It was towards the end of my time with the Spice Girls, and I was pursued in a car and I actually ended up hitting another car because you don't think. You're not in a sensible frame of mind, you are in that fight-or-flight response.

She added that "I really feel for Louis. Obviously, he needs some protection and he shouldn't really have been left in that situation. You have to try and control yourself as much as you can but we are all human."

Meanwhile, the female fan at the centre of the brawl has vowed to press charges. "'He socked me. He's going to go to jail," she told the Sun."Yeah I'm going to press charges. The guy just grabbed me and threw me to the floor and he socked me and that's it".