Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested in New York City on Saturday, accused of a brutal sexual attack on a hotel employee in Manhattan, according to reports citing police sources.

Police officers in plain clothes belonging to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey boarded an Air France plane Flight 23 at about 4:45 p.m. as it waited for takeoff and took him into custody, the New York Times reported.

Three police officers pulled Kahn from the plane's first-class cabin and turned him over to New York Police Department officers from the Midtown South precinct, the New York Post reported.

He is being investigated by the Special Victims Unit.

The incident is said to have taken place when a housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn's room at the Sofitel hotel on West 44th street, the Post reported.

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