These factory workers, including a woman, were participating in the water festival by dancing and spraying water from rubber hoses on one another when the neighbours in front of their house in Taman Bidara here yesterday called the police.

Seberang Perai Tengah district police chief Shafee Abd Samad said acting on public complaints, police raided the place at 2.30pm and found the group celebrating the festival with loud music blaring in the background.

He said those arrested included a woman, and they were aged between 20 and 30.

“They were noisy and dancing to music blaring in the background. They were neither practising social distancing nor wearing face masks,” he told Bernama when contacted today.

He said the revellers, believed to be factory workers, tried to escape but police managed to round them up.

One of them, believed to be drunk, pushed policemen in his bid to resist arrest, he said.

Shafee said they were being investigated under Sections 186 and 269 of the Penal Code as well as Regulation 19 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Regulations 2021.

In Myanmar, the traditional water festival is usually held in mid-April to celebrate the Myanmar New Year.