Chandigarh, Sept 30 : Hundreds of Indians thronged the UK visa application centre here to seek visas in a bid to beat the October 1 deadline when new and stricter visa guidelines will come into effect.

People came in from Punjab and Haryana to submit their visa applications at the Visa Facilitation Services (VFS) centre for UK, but could not succeed even after waiting for over 24 hours as the counter closed before the scheduled time due to the heavy rush. Reportedly, the authorities had to call in the police to control the crowd.

"There is no discipline here. Nobody is giving us any information. The police are also baton charging us. First police asked us to sit, then after about ten minutes, they started beating us. One boy started bleeding after being hit in the leg," said Khushwant Singh, a visa seeker.

According to present guidelines, the visa seekers have to keep the maintenance money in their bank accounts for a day before submitting the bank statements with their visa applications.

But, with the new guidelines coming into force, the visa applicants will have to keep the money for at least 28 days before submitting the bank statement and application. (ANI)