What witnesses say

Visitors at the public gallery of Lok Sabha on Wednesday said the two protesters who jumped into the House's chamber were sitting quietly and disrupted the proceedings "all of a sudden".

A witness sitting at the public gallery said that while some Lok Sabha MPs were chasing the protesters, a smoke canister was thrown by one of them inside the House.

"The protesters were not chanting any slogans while being seated at the public gallery and jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber all of a sudden," the eyewitness said.

"The moment the protesters jumped into the House's chamber, the MPs tried chasing them. The protesters also threw a smoke canister there. During the incident, we were evacuated as per security instructions," he said.

According to witnesses, around 30 to 40 visitors were seated at the gallery of Lok Sabha when the "security breach" took place.

"It was shocking to see such kind of an incident inside Parliament, despite five layers of security," another eyewitness said.

Narayan Swami, one of the eyewitnesses, claimed that 23 of them had gathered outside Parliament after acquiring passes to visit the gallery of the House, but they were denied entry.

"We had visitors' pass but were not allowed entry," Swami claimed.

The area around the Parliament was turned into a fortress following the two incidents with paramilitary and police personnel deployed in large numbers.