When surfers attack

MALIBU, Calif. -- A paparazzo trying to photograph Matthew McConaughey at the beach told police he was attacked by a mob of surfers who threw his camera in the ocean.

The 29-year-old photojournalist told sheriff's deputies that a large group of surfers near Paradise Cove in Malibu approached him and other paparazzi about 2 p.m. Saturday and demanded the group stop taking pictures and filming.

"There was apparently a fight and the photographer gave a statement that he received injuries," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said Sunday. "We are asking that anyone with a copy of the videotape turn it over to investigators."

Whitmore said detectives with the Sheriff's Department's Lost Hills Station were investigating.

A call to McConaughey's publicist was not immediately returned.

The actor was not involved in the attack, authorities said.

The celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted a video Sunday showing about a dozen young men in swimsuits approaching what appears to be a group of paparazzi and yelling and swearing at them.

A scuffle breaks out after one of the photographers exchanges insults with the group and at first refuses their orders to leave.

"I'll give you a thousand bucks if you leave right now," one of the young men in swimsuits tells the photographers.

Another shoves a photographer filming the scene and still another says, "We'll draw a line in the beach, and we'll fight for the beach. If you guys win, you can have the beach."

When one of the group shouts at a photographer, "Get a ... real job," he replies, "This is a real job. What do you do?

"I just drink beer and party," the man tells him.