Yoga class mistaken for ‘ritual mass murder’

Onlookers mistook a yoga class as a “ritual mass murder”, reporting it to the police in Lincolnshire, England.

Five police cars reached the ‘crime-scene’ at North Sea Observatory in Chapel St Leonards, Lincolnshire, on Wednesday night.

BBC spoke with 22-year-old Yoga teacher Millie Laws who found the whole incident “funny and surreal”. She initially thought that the report of her being a “mass murderer” was a “joke”.

Laws was teaching seven students at the Seascape Cafe situated inside a building. She recalls two dog walkers peeking through the glass window while the class was at its Shavasana or relaxation stage. Additionally, the room was dark with candles lit, which made it more suspicious, she added.

“They’re [students] laying down with blankets over them, their eyes are closed. It’s very dark in there. I just had candles and little tea lights lit the whole room, and I was just walking around playing my drum. I had a nice floaty top on with large bell sleeves,” she said.

“A couple with some dogs just came up to the window and were having a look in, but they walked off really quickly and I didn’t think anything of it.”

“I didn’t know until after we left that these people phoned in saying that there was a mass murderer; they were wearing a robe and they were walking over all of the people, and it looked like some kind of ritual, and that the people on the floor were actually dead.

“I guess from the outside view it could look like that, because they’re all really still, very nice and relaxed.

“I’m sure their imagination was running wild with what was going on.”

“I feel really bad for whoever the person was who [phoned police] that would, of course, have been terrifying. So I do feel for them.

“But at the same time you’ve got to see the lighter side of it.”

Managers at Seascape Cafe posted a statement on Facebook to remove any doubts in the residents of the small village where police were ringing at night, stating everything in the area was good, jokingly adding that “We are not part of any mad cult or crazy clubs.”