The United States Ambassador to India Ken Juster on Thursday apologised for the vandalising of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Indian embassy in Washington.

Unidentified miscreants vandalised the statue with graffiti and spray paint, PTI reported. The incident reportedly took place on the intervening night of June 2 and 3 amid widespread protests across US over the death of an African-American man, George Floyd, on May 25. The Indian embassy officials registered a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies.

Juster said that he was sorry to see the desecration of the Gandhi statue. “Please accept our sincere apologies,” he wrote in a tweet. “Appalled as well by the horrific death of George Floyd and the awful violence and vandalism. We stand against prejudice and discrimination of any type. We will recover and be better.”

The statue of Mahatma Gandhi was dedicated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his state visit to the US in 2000, the Hindustan Times reported. In October 1998, the US Congress had allowed the Indian government to establish and maintain a memorial “to honour Mahatma Gandhi on Federal land in the District of Columbia”.

Meanwhile, Floyd’s death has sparked widespread outrage, and demonstrations have taken place for the last eight days across the US. Several of the protests have turned violent. This week, protestors in Washington DC also burnt a historic church and damaged prime properties, including the Lincoln Memorial.