PARIS - French police briefly detained British fashion designer John Galliano in Paris on Thursday evening for alleged assault and making anti-Semitic remarks, a police source told AFP on Friday.

The detention in Paris' fashionable Marais district came after Dior's chief designer allegedly verbally accosted a couple seated on a cafe terrace.

"For the moment we don't know what led him to address the couple," the police source said.

Police detained him and he was found to have been drinking alcohol. The designer was released pending charges being filed.

Gibraltar-born Galliano, 50, took over the creative helm at Christian Dior in 1996.

He would have been focused this week on preparing his fall-winter collections for Christian Dior and his own label during next week's Paris Fashion Week.

The mustachioed designer has styled himself publicly as a neo-modern Edwardian dandy, assuming rock star poses at the end of his shows.

But backstage he is rather shy and more interested in discussing the technical aspects of his creations.