The net is closing in on sick vandals who caused £60,000 worth of damage when they scrawled Nazi swastikas on a Jewish cemetery as Greater Manchester police scour CCTV footage.
The hunt for the criminals is still on after marble and granite headstones were pushed over and others daubed with the abusive graffiti at Blackley Jewish Cemetery earlier this week.
A clean-up operation following the anti-semitic hate crime has been planned for Sunday and the police have invited the local community to join the mass event.
Inspector Mike Reid of the Integrated Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “This is a sickening and cruel act of racism.
“A cemetery is supposed to be a resting place for people who have passed away. It should be a place of sanctity and dignity where families can come and pay their respects to those who have lost their lives.
“So to have those graves desecrated in such an appalling and disrespectful way will no doubt cause immeasurable anguish to the families and loved ones affected.
“The vandalism of a gravestone is, in itself, a sickening act but to violate the memory of those resting in the cemetery still further by daubing racial slurs on the graves is truly repulsive. I cannot begin to get into the mind of someone who would commit such an atrocity.”
Before the attacks, which saw more than 60 graves desecrated, North Manchester Jewish Cemeteries Trust insisted incidents in the area had decreased over the past three years.
Greater Manchester had the UK’s highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2011, but this has dropped according The Community Security Trust – a Jewish charity.
Despite reviewing security footage, police are still appealing to anyone who as any information about the incident.
Inspector Reid said: “Someone, somewhere, knows who is responsible and I would urge those people to do the right thing.
“Think how you would feel if it was the grave of your loved one which was damaged. You would want justice so please, think of those are suffering and speak to us, in confidence if needed.”
Anyone with information should call police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 11.
Image courtesy of LWYang with thanks
