A beauty pageant turned ugly in New York when a brawl erupted between contestants at an after party.
In a now-viral video, a melee erupts as a mob of well-dressed men and women lay into each other after NYC's first ever Miss Sri Lanka beauty pageant.
The motive for the fight at the The Vanderbilt in South Beach, which is home to a large Sri Lankan population, is currently unknown.
Sujani Fernando, one of the organisers, said none of the contestants were involved in the brawl.
She said all 14 were inside the building as the fight erupted outside.
In 2021, a similar scuffle broke out at a top pageant in Sri Lanka.
The reigning beauty queen had to be handcuffed after she snatched the crown from her rival's head.
She claimed her competitor shouldn't have won, and should've been disqualified because she was divorced.
But the organiser said that social media users have blamed the scuffle on an inaccurate Sri Lankan stereotype, calling the ruck "just a fight".
“Sri Lankans are good people,” she said.
“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.”
She was also disappointed about how the fight has overshadowed the toil and hard work of the 14 young women.
“It’s very sad to see,” Fernando said. “The girls were so happy. You should see the effort, you should see the time they put into this, but they didn’t get a single minute to enjoy it.”
More than 300 people came to watch the pageant, which was raising funds for a hospital in the South Asian country, which is currently embroiled in an economic crisis.
One critic said the brawl brought shame on the country, writing under a Sri Lankan Daily Mirror YouTube video of the scuffle: "First ever and last. What a disgrace.”
In the video, a group of people are seen arguing as others try to keep the peace.
Soon the fight erupts with a group of men laying into each other as women shriek.
At least two men can be seen climbing on top of other fighters and beating them while on the ground.
According to the video, some people flee, but others look as though they're ready for round two.
Chandra Muniweera, who attended the pageant and subsequent party, said it happened around midnight and denied any of the young female competitors were invovled.
She told the Staten Island Advance : “We thought we had a very nice and a very good pageant, but unfortunately, this incident happened."
Fernando says the online rumours have hurt the reputations of the young women.
“They’re building stories from those few videos, but they don’t understand the damage they’re doing to these 14 girls who were not involved in the fight,” she said.
“I just feel so bad for the girls because people should let them enjoy the moment, enjoy their victory because they put in so much time.”
