London, July 18 (ANI): Faithfuls are gathering in a small Louisiana neighbourhood to witness a statue of Mother Mary bleeding.

The statue of the Mother Mary holding baby Jesus is in the front garden of a house in Baton Rouge.

The house owner, Hai Nguyen, had been cutting his lawn when he looked up and saw blood on the statue which seemed to be coming out of Mary's temple, his family said.

According to WLOX Channel 13, neighbour Kim Pham said that the blood had been dripping down the statue's face.

He don't know how to explain it. He just know that maybe God sent a message through Mary, the Daily Mail quoted Nguyen's daughter as saying.

Believing that it had been a real message from God, the family called everyone whom they knew to come and see the bleeding Mary with their own eyes.

As news spread and more believers arrived to the place, the family erected a gazebo for the faithful to keep an overnight vigil in front of the statue.

So everybody come over and we pray all night last night. All night, Pham said.

Local priests took samples of the substance from the statue's face to determine what it was.

A religious studies professor from Louisiana State University told CNN that the observation demonstrated the devotion of these believers.

One way to think about it is to see how this is real to those who devote themselves to Mary and what that means to them as a kind of prayerful way to contemplate the role Mary in their lives or Jesus in their lives and for many people it's empowering and it's a way to return to a devotion, the professor said. (ANI)