A fight broke out between the police and several people who dug a secret illegal tunnel in a synagogue in Brooklyn, reports The Guardian, citing news.ro

A group of men from New York’s Hasidic Jewish community were arrested Monday in a dispute over an illegal tunnel secretly dug into the wall of a historic synagogue that has since been closed.

The actions of the law enforcement officers after the discovery of the tunnel led to a fight between the police and those who created the passage and who wanted it to remain.

Chabad Lubavitch’s world headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was in chaos Tuesday as Jewish leaders and police clashed with what Chabad spokesman Rabbi Motti Seligson called “a group of student extremists.”

The building was once the home of the leader of the Orthodox Jewish movement, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and attracts thousands of visitors each year. Schneerson led Chabad Lubavitch for more than four decades until his death in 1994, reviving the Hasidic religious community that had been devastated by the Holocaust.

Seligson said the student rebels as part of the movement “secretly breached the walls of a vacant building behind the headquarters, creating an underground passageway under a row of office buildings and conference rooms that later connected to the synagogue.”

A construction crew was brought in on Monday to repair the damaged walls, but was met with protests from those building the tunnel.

“These efforts were interrupted by extremists who breached a wall in the synagogue, destroying the sanctuary in an attempt to maintain unauthorized access,” Seligson said.

The reason for the creation of the tunnel remains unknown.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department (NYPD) said officers were called to the building on Monday afternoon to respond to a group of rowdies who had trespassed and damaged a wall.

The people believed to be responsible for building the tunnel have been arrested for vandalism and trespassing, as well as obstructing government administration, according to a New York police spokesman.

City inspectors were called to the scene for an emergency inspection of the building. During the inspection, police officers stood behind barricades that surrounded the premises, blocking the line of young people who wanted to enter the building.

An anonymous tip was sent to the Fire Department of New York last month about the location, but all exits were functional and up to code when firefighters responded, agency spokeswoman Amanda Farinacci said.

The NYPD said the building is currently on lockdown until city inspectors inspect the structure for structural safety.