Police called in at Xiaomi Mi Max launch event after fans create chaos

An emerging trend of mobile firms calling hordes of ‘fans’ to their press conferences Thursday saw the crowd turning unruly at an event of Chinese handset maker Xiaomi and police had to intervene in the matter. While the event was attended by around 2,000 so-called ‘Xiaomi fans’, the space constraints led to a protest by some of them at the event, which was being held for launch by Xiaomi of Mi Max, which the company claimed is the first mobile phone with 6.44 inch display. The protest continued for quite some time with people shouting slogans against the company and it delayed the event at least by half an hour. This was the first for any technology related even in India and the chaos was reported widely on twitter by bloggers and tech journalists present for the event. The matter was settled after intervention by the police. A Xiaomi publicity team member said that the company did not call the police and the matter was settled amicably. Many mobile companies have been calling such ‘fans’ at their launch events these days, while some of these functions are being held in stadiums and auditoriums. With inputs from PTI