India-Police in southern India have stopped members of a sect from digging up human skeletons from a graveyard and eating them.
Three spear-carrying members of the Kolayar 24th Manai Telegu Chettiars reportedly danced to a cemetery near Coimbatore.
Officers were there to stop them. One of their members says the move is threatening the group's future.
According to The Times of India, they had planned to dig up graves in Sundakkamuthur graveyard and eat bones in a ritual that's supposed to stop members of the group dying on a holy day.
The ritual is known as Mayana Kollai.
''Now that we have been prohibited from practising our ritual, I do not know what will happen to the community,'' group member Arumugam Chettiar said.
The ritual came to light when TV channels covered the event last year.