Ananova:

Police in India forced nearly 200 cinema goers to do ten sit ups each for watching a porn film.

The audience, in Balasore, Orissa, also had to promise never to watch porn again, reports the Hindustan Times.

It's part of a new police tactic of trying to prevent pornographic movies from being screened.

Instead of prosecuting cinema-owners, the police are trying to scare their audience away.

Balasore SP Sanjeev Panda said a police team, acting on a tip-off, raided the theatre and detained the audience. They were taken to a public place and made to do 10 sit-ups each.

"Earlier, we acted against the hall owners and their staff. But it failed to effectively check illegal screening of obscene movies. So we decided to crack down on the audience," Panda said.

The audience also included a large number of truant schoolchildren below 17. Their parents were called by the police and made to witness the punishment.