The St. Petersburg police stopped a flash mob whose participants were supposed to en masse perform the “Harlem Shake” dance, popular thanks to an Internet meme. reports this Rosbalt .

The action was planned at 16:00 near the building of the Galereya shopping center on Ligovsky Prospekt. The organizers announced it mainly through social networks. “Invite your friends, prepare an extraordinary costume and rock it in the city center,” the announcement said .

By the appointed time, several hundred people came to the place. According to Rosbalt, there are 600-700 participants, and according to Fontanka.ru - about 300 people. Due to the large number of people who came, the organizers were unable to quickly hold a flash mob. The unauthorized gathering of people did not please the police, who demanded that those gathered disperse and detained one of the organizers.

According to Interfax , the detainee is 17 years old. The police are deciding whether to draw up a protocol under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picketing). The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that two residents of St. Petersburg complained to the police about the participants in the flash mob because the action made it difficult for them to move along the street.

The song “Harlem Shake,” released by electronic artist Baauer in May 2012, gained worldwide popularity in February 2013, when YouTube users began uploading their own videos of a 30-second fragment of the track. The idea of the meme is that in the first 15 seconds of the video one character dances to the song, and in the second half of the video he is invariably joined by other participants in unusual poses and costumes. Australian teenagers were the first to publish their own version of “Harlem Shake” on February 2.

19 days later, the song debuted at number one on Billboard's weekly music chart. In Russia, “Harlem Shake” also reached first place on the iTunes sales chart. published their versions of the dance Among others, such popular characters on the RuNet as Ivan Urgant and Nikita Dzhigurda . Filming of “Harlem Shake” on Old Arbat in Moscow, organized by Dzhigurda on February 23, was interrupted by the police.

In St. Petersburg, police dispersed the “Harlem Shake” performers