New York Metropolitan Opera cancels shows after 'human ashes' are sprinkled into orchestra pit

'Cremated ashes': The venue was evacuated while police dealt with the incident
Shutterstock / LEE SNIDER PHOTO
Fiona Simpson30 October 2016

Opera performances in New York were forced to be cancelled after “cremated ashes” were sprinkled into the orchestra pit, it has been reported.

The city’s Metropolitan Opera House, on Mahattan's Upper West Side, was forced to cancel a show on Sunday afternoon after a member of the audience poured what police believed to be cremated human ashes in the venue.

John Miller, deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism said: “An individual from out of town... indicated that he was here to sprinkle ashes of a friend, his mentor in opera, during the performance.”

A statement posted on the opera’s Facebook page said: “Today’s performance of Guillaume Tell was canceled during the second intermission because of a disturbance by an audience member, who sprinkled an unidentified powdered substance into the orchestra pit.”

The post was later updated to say a later performance had also been called-off while police carried out investigations.

The theatre was evacuated after the incident but no injuries were reported, police confirmed.

Officials added that suspect fled the scene and no arrests have been made.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in