By Eric King-
Five mosques in Birmingham were targeted by a maniac with a sledge hammer overnight
Birmingham police said windows of the Jam-E-Masjid Qiblah Hadhrat Sahib Gulhar Shareef mosque on Slade Road in Erdington are now boarded up after the attacks
Five mosques in Birmingham have been targeted in a string of violent attacks overnight and into the morning.
Officers were alerted to reports of a man smashing windows with a sledgehammer on Birchfield Road were received at 02:30. They were then alerted to a similar attack in Erdington about 45 minutes later, with more in Aston and Perry Barr reported. Another on Albert Road was struck at 10:00 GMT.
The Home Secretary called the vandalism “deeply concerning and distressing”.
West Midlands Police said it was yet to establish a motive and officers from its Counter Terrorism Unit were investigating.
A spokesperson for Witton Islamic Centre on Witton Road, Aston, said CCTV captured a man smashing windows at about 01:30.”The whole of the front windows, about six, were smashed,” he said.
“Because of the force he used it’s gone through the windows and into the mosque itself”.
Counter terror police in the UK have stepped up monitoring activity at places of worship and other areas deemed at risk following the shootings.