Man jumps into Indian Parliament, sets off smoke can in major security breach
Delhi police officers stop motorists at a checkpoint set up outside the Indian parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. AP
The Parliament TV channel showed a young man wearing a black jacket and dark trousers jump from the visitors' gallery into the lawmakers' seating area in the lower house while a member was speaking, climbing over tables and entering the aisles.
He was surrounded by security staff and lawmakers and caught in an aisle as he set off a smoke can in his shoes, releasing dense white and yellow smoke, lawmakers said.
Four people, including the man, had been arrested, authorities said.
"It all happened in half a minute or one minute," Rajendra Agarwal, a lawmaker from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who was presiding over the house, told CNN News 18 TV channel, adding he saw a second person in the visitors' gallery also trying to jump into the lawmakers' area.
"There is no doubt it was a major security lapse."
Lawmakers said that the intruder shouted slogans they could not make out and there was a sound and some smoke.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not in Parliament at the time.
"I was expecting maybe they will blast something, shoot somewhere," Sudip Bandyopadhyay, a Trinamool Congress party lawmaker, told the ANI news agency in which Reuters has a minority stake.
"This is a serious security lapse. How did they enter ... releasing smoke, sound," he said.
The lower house stopped proceedings soon after the incident but resumed business about an hour later.
Speaker Om Birla told members that investigations had found that the smoke released by the man was "ordinary smoke, just to cause sensation."
“Two people were arrested from inside the building and two from outside the complex,” he said.
There was no statement from the government or law enforcement agencies.
The incident took place in the new, high-security Parliament building inaugurated by Modi in May.
The Parliament complex is located in the heart of New Delhi's power centre and security is high in and around it, especially when it is in session.
Reuters
