'Rehab' singer Amy Winehouse is said to have attacked a fan of hers as he was trying to take a picture of her.

Winehouse, 26, was seen and photographed lashing out before grabbing the man's iPhone and shoving it in his face on March 16 outside a supermarket with pals in Marylebone High Street, central London.

She claimed she feared the man was going to attack her and was acting in self- defence.

"This guy lifted his iPhone up to try to take her picture. She tried to take it out of his hand and they grappled with it," the Daily Star quoted an onlooker as saying.

"Then she got it and open-handedly hit him in the face. She started shouting but wasn't trying to hide what she'd done," the onlooker said.

Her spokesman said she was just retaliating because the man had pushed her friend out of the way so he could take her photo.

"She asked him: 'Why did you do that?' and then shoved him," he added. (ANI)