WASHINGTON, Dec 9: India has submitted a formal protest on Thursday with the US State Department in Washington, urging it to apologise for the patting down of the Indian ambassador to the US during a security check at an airport in Mississippi.

A senior Indian diplomat told Indian journalists in Washington that Indian Ambassador to the United States, Meera Shankar, was subjected to a “pat down” at Jackson-Evers International Airport in Mississippi and that “in all likelihood she was singled out because she was in a sari”.

Earlier, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters in New Delhi that the mistreatment was 'unacceptable' and India was taking up the matter with the State Department.

Reports in the US media show that Ms Shankar, who was returning to Washington from an event at Mississippi State University was about to board a flight to Baltimore when she was taken to a waiting room “despite staff being told that she was an ambassador”.

She was then reported to have been pulled from an airport security line and put through a hands-on frisking by a female Transportation Security Administration agent.

Organisers of the event told reporters that Ms Shankar had expressed dismay at the episode.

Janos Radvanyi, Chair of the University's International Studies Department, was quoted as saying, “It was a wonderful programme, maybe the best we have had, (but) this stupid incident ruined the whole thing.”

He added, “She said, 'I will never come back here.' We are sending her a letter of apology,” noting also that Ms Shankar was “very upset,” and that the incident would be “very bad for Mississippi”.

USA Today quoted Tan Tsai, a research associate at MSU who was at the scene, saying, “She is a very strong woman, but you could see in her face that she was humiliated... Indian culture is very modest.”

The newspaper reported that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's office was looking into the incident, with the governor's spokesman Dan Turner saying, “At this time, we are trying to find out exactly what happened – all of the details. He added that until the office has done a complete review, it would be inappropriate to comment on what action may be taken.”