DHAKA: India’s parliament erupted in mayhem on Thursday when a legislator fired pepper spray in the lower house in protest against a bill on a new state.

Television footage showed pictures of lawmakers coughing, sneezing and holding scarves to their faces. Shouting protesters also broke a glass table and snapped the wire of an official’s microphone.

A few legislators were rushed away in an ambulance while others were given first aid treatment in the assembly.

‘The incidents which took place in the house are a big blot on our democracy,’ India’s parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath told reporters, according to The Straits Times.

BDST: 1918 HRS, FEB 13, 2014