The Warangal police on Wednesday secured its place in the Guinness Book of World Records by organising the largest self-defence training class, for 21,276 female students simultaneously.

Female students from several schools and colleges had gathered at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Hanamkonda for the event.

The Times of India reported that the self-defence class went on for 52 minutes and 8 seconds, sealing its place in the record books, with squadron leader Jayasimha representing the Guinness Book of World Records and DGP Anurag Sharma witnessing the event. 

"We want to make them more self-reliant. The training would give lot of confidence to them. Martial art training is a must for girls. It would work as a deterrent to molesters," the DGP was quoted as saying.

The earlier record involved 2,212 participants and was a Krav Maga lesson organized by the South American Krav Maga Federation at Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2010. 

Last year, it was reported that the Warangal commissionerate had become the first in the country free of pending non-bailable warrants.

“We have executed a record of 1070 NBWs in 44 days and we are the first in the country to clear all warrants. We have executed over 80 NBWs which were pending for over a decade. We reviewed the pendency of NBWs in July and decided to execute every single warrant by August 31 and we did it," Warangal Commissioner G Sudheer Babu had said at the time.