one man was pulled to the ground and punched by others.
The Miss Sri Lanka New York beauty pageant afterparty ended in a massive brawl.
It was the first-ever Miss Sri Lanka New York pageant, held at The Vanderbilt in South Beach, Staten Island.
It was reported that 300 people attended the afterparty, which took place on October 21, 2022.
Video footage showed attendees dressed for the occasion.
However, it showed groups of men fighting.
Meanwhile, some of the women were heard screaming and trying to get out of the way of the chaos while other partygoers attempted to separate those who were fighting.
It got more violent when one man was pulled to the ground and punched by others.
Glasses were smashed and shouting was heard throughout, with security intervening and ordering everyone to get out.
It was not clear what sparked the violence, but some damage was caused to the venue.
Miss Sri Lanka New York after party – video 2 pic.twitter.com/sp94xPe4lK
— Under The Coconut Tree (@Toddy_Lad) October 23, 2022
Coordinator of the beauty contest, Sujani Fernando, confirmed that the 14 beauty contest competitors were not involved in the violence.
She stated that the beauty pageant participants had been inside and that the violence happened outside the venue.
It was reported that Miss Sri Lanka New York beauty contest organisers chose Staten Island as the venue due to the number of Sri Lankans residing in the area.
Footage of the violence went viral and it has been condemned by Sri Lankan netizens, with many stating the behaviour demonstrated by those in the video tarnishes their image.
One said: “This is the typical behaviour of village Sri Lankans.
“Every event ends up in a brawl. From elders to children to women, they hit each other with plastic chairs, umbrellas.”
Another wrote:
“Utter disgrace and embarrassing. All of them should be arrested and punished according to the law.”
Sujani responded to the backlash, insisting that the fight was an isolated incident. She said:
“Sri Lankans are good people. It’s just a fight – fights happen, kids fight.
“That happens in any culture, any nationality, it doesn’t have to be Sri Lankans. We’re not that type of people.”
Newly-crowned Miss Sri Lanka New York Angelia Gunasekara dismissed false reports that the contestants got into a “fight for the crown”.
She said: “It’s very upsetting to see articles written about us saying that this altercation had happened because we were fighting for the crown because there were boyfriends involved and I was fighting.
“All these rumours are false.”
Despite video footage of the mass brawl, the New York Police Department said that no arrests were made on the night of the beauty contest.
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