A 6 feet tall, 294 kg bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi that was donated by the Indian government to the city of Davis in the US state of California was vandalised, according to local media reports.
Photos on social media showed the vandalised statue with its ankles sawed off with half of its face severed and missing. The damaged statue was found by a park employee in the early hours of January 27, the police said.
Officials said that the statue is being removed and will be stored in a safe place until it can be evaluated. The police are unsure about when the incident happened, but said that they were taking it very seriously, as it is a cultural icon to a portion of people in Davis.
Meanwhile, the embassy of India in Washington DC has called it a malicious act and has also taken the matter to the US Department of State.