London Olympics 2012: Coe says 'mystery woman' cast member of opening ceremony

A day after India's angry protest over an unidentified lady gatecrashing into the contingent's march past at the Opening Ceremony, London Games Organising Committee Chief Sebastian Coe on Sunday said that the "mystery woman" was just a cast member of the gala show and there was no security risk to the team.

An angry Indian acting Chef-de-Mission P K Muralidharan Raja had shot off a letter on this embarrassing issue to the

London Games organisers last night in protest against the incident even as media reports claimed to have identified the "mystery woman".

Coe sought to cool down the frayed tempers among the Indians, saying that he would meet with the Indian delegation to discuss the matter.

"She was a cast member who clearly got slightly overexcited. She shouldn't have been there," Coe said.

Coe insisted that the unidentified woman posed no danger to the Indian team or the proceedings because, as a cast member for the opening ceremony, she had to go through all the security checks that everyone else does to get into the Olympic Stadium.

"She shouldn't have been in the opening ceremony. But don't run away with the idea that she walked in off the street," he said.

A day after photos of the 'mystery woman' appeared in newspapers and went viral on social networking sites, a newspaper claimed to have identified the young lady as Madhura Honey, a post-graduate from Bangalore.

Deccan Chronicle, quoting sources, said that her friend from the college was also baffled seeing her with the Indian contingent. She has been living in London and before she went with the Indian team, she had displayed her Olympic passes on her Facebook account. But once this became an issue, she had deactivated her Facebook account.

Raja had earlier said that the Indian contingent would wait for an official confirmation about the identity of the woman.

... contd.

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