A shareholder vote to approve the sale of Fortis Bank to BNP Paribas had to be adjourned after people hurled shoes and other objects at the management of the Belgian bank’s erstwhile holding company.

Jozef De Mey, chairman of Fortis Holding, which owned the bank before last year’s nationalisation, was forced to call a temporary suspension to the meeting in Ghent in the hope of calming frayed tempers.