A statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been vandalised here in the capital of Netherlands by unknown miscreants with graffiti and spray painting.

Amsterdam: A statue of Mahatma Gandhi has been vandalised here in the capital of Netherlands by unknown miscreants with graffiti and spray painting.

The statue of Gandhi on the Churchilllaan in Amsterdam was covered with red paint.

Mahatma Gandhi"Obviously, we are opposed to any form of vandalism and daubing of these things is completely unacceptable," the city official said.

"It is logical that we will file a declaration, the image will be cleaned," he said.

It is not yet known who is behind the daubing. An employee of the Kunstwacht, who provides maintenance and repairs, says that the cleaning work can take hours.

A 75-year-old man saw the daubs on Wednesday and called the municipality. I have lived here for forty years and I have never experienced this. I have been watching the statue for years," the man said.

Mahatma Gandhi Since the death of 46-year-old Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis, US, and subsequent worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, there has been much debate about street names and statues of people with a colonial past. All over the world, statues of controversial historical figures are broughtdown or defaced.

Recently, images and buildings have been defaced in various places that refer to the colonial past of the Netherlands.

The statue was unveiled on the Churchillaan on October 2, 1990 in honour of Gandhi's 121st birthday.

The design was made by the sculptor Karel Gomes, who died in 2016. At the time, the plan for the statue came from the Hindu organisation Triveda.