LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Actor Shia LaBeouf was arrested in Georgia on charges of disorderly conduct and public intoxication early on Saturday (July 8) after he became unruly in downtown Savannah, police said.

LaBeouf, best known for his role as Sam Witwicky in the Transformers action movie franchise, was in the bustling City Market neighbourhood before dawn when he approached a bystander and a police officer and asked for a cigarette, Savannah police said in a statement.

"When LaBeouf wasn't given a cigarette, he became disorderly, using profanities and vulgar language in front of the women and children present," the statement said.

He became aggressive towards the officer when asked to leave, police said, and when the officer tried to arrest LaBeouf he ran into a hotel lobby.

Eventually, he was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and obstruction, and booked into the Chatham County jail, authorities said.

He was released a few hours later, the Chatham County Sheriff's Office said.

A representative for the Chatham County jail could not be reached to confirm whether the actor had been released. A spokeswoman for LaBeouf, 31, did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment.

LaBeouf was in Savannah to act in independent movie The Peanut Butter Falcon, according to trade publication Variety.

This is the latest in a series of arrests for LaBeouf.

In January, he was arrested after a scuffle outside a New York museum where he was chanting, "He will not divide us," during a live-streamed protest against President Donald Trump.

In 2014, he was arrested after disturbing a performance of the musical Cabaret on Broadway in New York, which led to him pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct violation and receiving outpatient care for addiction.

LaBeouf, after playing the main protagonist in the Transformers series, did not star in the latest Transformers movie, entitled The Last Knight, which opened in the United States last month.

His most recent film roles include a part as a misfit selling magazines in American Honey, a drama that came out last year, and as a soldier in 2014 war film Fury.

He has also pursued projects as a performance artist, working in a trio with artists from Finland and Britain.

During a red carpet premiere in 2014, the internationally recognised LaBeouf wore a brown paper bag on his head that read "I Am Not Famous Anymore."