Washington, Sep 2 (IANS): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been pictured without a face mask at a hair salon in San Francisco, breaking the city's Covid-19 prevention rules, the media reported on Wednesday.

Footage obtained by Fox News showed the veteran Democrat, who has often slammed President Donald Trump for not wearing a mask, inside the salon's premises on Monday, the BBC reported.

Pelosi was seen walking with a face mask around her neck, rather than over her mouth.

A stylist, who was wearing a mask, was also seen in the footage following her.

But in a statement on Tuesday, Pelosi's spokesman Drew Hammill said the Speaker did not realise she was breaking her home city's preventive rules.

"This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business," the BBC quoted Hammill as saying in the statement.

"The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment."

San Francisco's pandemic orders currently do not allow hair salons to open indoors.

More than 5,000 businesses in the San Francisco Bay area alone have closed since March, over 2,000 of them permanently, due to the pandemic.

Outdoor haircuts were allowed in California from Tuesday, under new rules announced by the Mayor, but indoor salons remain shut.

Senate Republicans suggested the House speaker was a hypocrite.