An International Yoga Day event organized by the Indian embassy in Male was disrupted after a mob stormed a stadium where over 150 people were celebrating the event, an American media outlet quoting the organizer reported on Tuesday.

The yoga session was organized on the 8th International Yoga Day. According to Fox 5, the crowd stormed the stadium and attacked participants and vandalized property. However, the police in the Maldives used pepper spray and tear gas to control the mob.

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According to Superintendent Fathmath Nashwa, police responded by using anti-riot tactics and then used tear gas and pepper spray to manage the crowd. Nashwa reported that six persons were detained in relation to the incident, as per Fox 5.

Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said a police investigation into the incident had begun, the media outlet said.

“An investigation has been launched by @PoliceMv into the incident that happened this morning at Galolhu stadium. This is being treated as a matter of serious concern and those responsible will be swiftly brought before the law,” the President tweeted.

Maldives Police also issued a statement on the Yoga Day Attack and highlighted that an internal review will be conducted to identify the response of the police ahead of the attack,local media reported.

With universal recognition and growing popularity of Yoga, the United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga on December 11, 2014.

The first International Yoga Day was celebrated on June 21, 2015.

This year the theme for the celebration was “Yoga for humanity”.

The theme has been selected after much deliberation/consultation and it appropriately portrays, how during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, yoga served the humanity in alleviating the suffering, and in the emerging post-COVID geo-political scenario too, it will bring people together through compassion, kindness, foster a sense of unity and build resilience among people world over.

As the sun apparently moves from the east to the west across the world, the Mass Yoga Demonstrations in the participating countries, if seen from any one point on Earth, will seem to be happening one after the other, almost in tandem, thus underlining the concept of ‘One Sun, One Earth’.