Taipei - The year got off badly for Singapore singer-songwriter JJ Lin, who was attacked by a man at an autograph session in Taipei on Thursday afternoon.

A picture on China Times showed a tall man wearing a cap and glasses striding on the stage while fans were lining up.

The next one showed him from the back attacking Lin.

A part-time student managed to grab hold of the man and called the police, and Lin was sent by ambulance to hospital.

No information on any injuries were given in China Times' online report which came out just before 4pm, but the newspaper said he had left the hospital and was due to return to the venue to continue the autograph session.

A spokesman of the National Taiwan University Hospital said he would leave the emergency unit after resting.

Lin was promoting his new album, Genesis.

The night before he had been performing at a Taipei countdown concert.

The suspect, said to be surnamed Chen, was sent to a police station. Central News Agency reported the police as saying they received a report of an assault at Ximending district around 3pm and officers were dspatched to the scene and later arrested a man aged around 30.

Police said it was not clear what the suspect's motives were and they were still investigating.

After making his police statement, Lin said he did not know who the man was.

He said the man was not responding to police questioning and he did not know why he was attacked. He said police believed the man wanted to be famous.