Naomi Campbell was the first black supermodel to grace the cover of Vogue magazine. (file photo)

    BEIJING, March 31 (Xinhuanet) -- One of the world's top models Naomi Campbell was arrested in New York on Thursday, after allegedly hitting her housekeeper over the head with a telephone.

    The 35-year-old British supermodel was being held by the police pending an arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court on a felony charge of second-degree assault.

    The supermodel's spokeswoman, Amanda Silverman, suggested that the charges were motivated by revenge.

    "We believe this is a case of retaliation, because Naomi had fired her housekeeper earlier this morning," Silverman said. "We are confident the courts will see it the same way," she added.

    The victim was a 41-year-old Hispanic female. She claimed that Campbell hit her with a mobile phone during a fight she and Campbell had at the supermodel's Manhattan home. Later, the victim was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital for treatment. She needed four stitches in her head.

Naomi Campbell is famed for her long legs as well as her quick, fiery temper. (file photo)

    "She had lacerations to the back of her head," the police spokesman said.

    Campbell, who shot to fame after being discovered by Elite Modeling agents near her London home when she was just 15, is well known for her short temper.

    In 2000, she pleaded guilty in a Canadian court to assaulting her assistant, Georgina Galanis, while shooting a movie in Toronto two years earlier.

    In an effort to control her temper, Campbell at one point booked herself into an anger-management clinic in Arizona -- a move she later explained during a television interview with star US broadcaster Barbara Walters.

    Campbell's rise to superstar status was rapid, and she was the first black supermodel to grace the cover of Vogue magazine. Enditem

    (Agencies)