(Karachi) In a shocking act of vandalism, unknown miscreants broke and ripped a statue of Mahatma Gandhi from a base in a park in the US state of California, local media reported.

The incident ignited outrage among Indian-Americans across the country, who demanded that the officials investigate it as an incident of hate crime.

As per details, the 6-ft tall, 650-pound (294 kg) bronze statue of Gandhi, in the Central Park of the City of Davis in Northern California, appeared to have been sawed off at the ankles and half its face was severed and missing.

The police said that the vandalised statue of Mahatma Gandhi was found by a park employee in the early hours of morning of January 27. The statue is being removed and will be stored in a safe place until it can be evaluated.

The police are still clueless why the statue was torn down and the motive behind the incident.

The statue of Gandhi, which was donated by the Indian government to the city of Davis, was installed by the city council four years ago amidst protests from anti-Gandhi and anti-India organisations.

Organisation for Minorities in India (OFMI), which spearheaded these protests and opposed the installation of the statue. The City of Davis had however voted to go ahead with the installation. Since then OFMI had launched a campaign to remove the Gandhi statue.