FASHION icon and civil rights champion, role model and pin-up: Michelle Obama had lots of reasons to draw the crowds on her brief visit to Oxford.

About 1,500 shoppers, tourists and bemused visitors, unsure why they were being watched by rooftop sharpshooters, queued 10-deep along St Aldate’s to earn the chance to tell their grandchildren they had seen the First Lady. But many came away unsure if they had glimpsed her or not.

After a long wait, the First Lady’s cortege swept round the corner from High Street and through the Christ Church gates. Was that a flash of one of Michelle’s famously toned arms waving? Blink, and you missed it.

American-born Mary Beth Wills, 34, from Grandpont, brought five-month-old Beatrice with her, decked out in Union Jack and Stars and Stripes flags.

She said: “My daughter has dual citizenship so I thought I’d bring her to get a glimpse of our First Lady.”

And carer Tom Gitonga brought wheelchair-bound Abul Kasen, 23, from Headington to see the visit.

Mr Kasen said: “I never thought we would have the chance to see her in Oxford.”