Jeremy Clarkson was questioned by police after a confrontation with youths in Milton Keynes threatened to turn violent.

The Top Gear presenter – who has previously brawled in public with Piers Morgan, the former editor of The Mirror – owned up to the incident in his column in The Sunday Times, but did not mention that the police were called.

Officers examined CCTV footage of the quarrel, in which Clarkson seized a boy by the scruff of the neck and lifted him off the ground.

The incident, at the Xscape sports complex on November 23, began when the television presenter stepped outside for a cigarette and was confronted by a gang of teenagers. “I wasn’t even remotely bothered when the swarm of children first approached,” he wrote. “I figured they were fans of Top Gear and wanted to know about Richard Hammond’s head. But no, what they wanted to know, most of all, was if I had any security.”

He attempted to retreat but said that he was pursued. “Figuring that attack was probably the best form of defence, I grabbed the ringleader by his hoody, lifted him off the ground and explained, firmly, that it’d be best if he went back to his tenement.”

The children began filming the altercation on their mobile phones but the footage does not appear to have been uploaded on to the internet.

Clarkson had visited the complex, which houses an indoor snow slope, to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. He said that he put the boy down because he feared that he would be portrayed as a bully.

“Instead of worrying about being stabbed, I was actually thinking, ‘Jesus, I’m going to get done for assault if I’m not careful.’ ” Police officers determined that a 14-year-old girl who rang them to report the incident was part of a gang that staff at the complex had reprimanded earlier. A Thames Valley police spokesman said: “Mobile phone images were viewed, as well as CCTV footage, and it became apparent that, if any offence had occurred, it was the man who was the victim.”

Officers questioned Clarkson, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, but he declined to make a complaint. The police spokesman added: “There is no evidence that a crime took place and therefore there will be no further police action.”

Clarkson, who was not available for comment yesterday, has described Milton Keynes as a “happy-slapping town centre”.

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