Reykjavik - One of Iceland's most prominent financiers became the target - literally - of peoples' anger over the collapse of Iceland's banks Glitnir and Landsbanki when he was hit in the face with a snowball, the DV newspaper reported Thursday. The paper said that prominent businessman and financier Jonsgeir Johannesson, 40, was emerging from a joint supervisory board meeting of the two failed banks when three young men hurled snowballs at him. One of the snowballs struck him in the face.

The paper cited one of the snowball-throwers as saying that the act felt "liberating" while Johannesson said he was neither shocked nor hurt by the attack. He immediately flew off to his luxury home in London.

With his financial investment group Baugur, Johannesson is regarded both as a chief culprit and as a symbolic figure in the collapse of Iceland's credit-driven investment bubble. (dpa)