Old, young run in Jaipur Marathon; Salman fans create chaos

Jaipur, Jan 24 : The Jaipur Marathon, in which people of all ages decided to run for their city to make it truly world class, turned ugly Sunday when police resorted to lathicharge in a bid to disperse the fans of Bollywood actor Salman Khan, who flagged off the event.

"The incident happened early in the morning at the start of the event. When Salman Khan left the place after flagging off the event, his fans went out of control and started throwing chairs and water bottles at the police. Seeing the situation turning out of control, police were left with no option but to lathicharge," a police official told IANS.

"The fans were angry as Salman did not take part in the marathon. They wanted him to run with them, but seeing the behaviour of the crowd and because of security reasons, the administration decided against it," the official said.

"No one was injured in the incident," he added.

An over 25,000-strong enthusiastic crowd gathered in the morning to take part in the event at the gate of Ramniwas Garden, from where a half marathon of 21 km and a "dream run" of 6 km were flagged off.

"We were happy to see enthusiasm in Jaipur for the marathon," said Suresh Mishra, convener, organiser and president Sanskriti, the voluntary organisation that organised the event.