Bjork lost her Icelandic cool yesterday, when she attacked a newspaper photographer shortly after she arrived at New Zealand's Auckland International Airport.

Bjork, who is in Auckland to perform at the Big Day Out concert on Friday, tore New Zealand Herald photographer Glenn Jeffrey's shirt in half, after he photographed her arriving at the airport early yesterday.

Jeffrey, a news photographer of 25 years, said Bjork was accompanied by a man who asked him not take photos.

"I took a couple of pictures ... and as I turned and walked away she came up behind me, grabbed the back of my black skivvy and tore it," he told the New Zealand Press Association.

"As she did this she fell over, she fell to the ground," he said.

Bjork said nothing during the incident, but her male companion was saying: "B, don't do this, B, don't do this," Jeffrey said.

It was the second time the singer has been involved in an altercation with a journalist - the last was in 1996 after a long flight to Thailand.