13 Jewish graves were knocked over and smashed and concrete covers of some of the graves were also damaged at the Belfast municipal cemetery, Northern Ireland.

The cemetery where the attack took place is one of the oldest public graveyards in Belfast. Some of the graves date back to the 1870s and are in a walled off section of the cemetery, which is often locked.

Eight young people are said to have carry out the attack with hammers and blocks, with a larger crowd looking on.

A policer officer said it was "a particularly sickening incident, which we are treating as a hate crime".

"To disturb the sanctity of a cemetery in this way is completely unacceptable and I can assure the public that we will conduct a robust investigation," he said.

A city Catholic bishop, Noel Treanor said: "These shameful acts are a blemish on our society." He said condemnation was not enough.

"What a tragedy and blemish then that the long-present, beloved and treasured Jewish families of our community should suffer yet again such actions of disrespect, violence to the memory of their beloved dead and the regrettable outworking of a latent xenophobia that stalks the minds of some."