Statues of Christopher Columbus vandalized in California, Rhode Island

Amid calls for replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, several statues of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus were vandalized with red paint in San Francisco and Providence, Rhode Island.

Earlier on Monday, a statue in Providence was defaced completely by the miscreants.

Vandals had chained a sign to the bottom of the statue that said, "Stop Celebrating Genocide" and spray-painted the word 'Genocide' on the monument, reported CNN.

Moreover, a Columbus statue near Coit Tower in San Francisco was sprayed with red paint on Sunday. The graffiti at the bottom of the statue read "Destroy all monuments of genocide and kill all colonizers."

Several groups have called for renaming Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day to recognize the native people who were driven out by European explorers.

In recent years, indigenous people have rallied against Columbus day claiming that the Italian explorer had enslaved and murdered many indigenous people.

San Francisco is one of several cities that marks Indigenous Peoples' Day.

-ANI