Police treat racist graffiti on house as hate crime

Police are treating graffiti and paint daubed on a house in west Belfast as a racially-motivated hate crime.

A resident came home to discover paint had been thrown over a wall and a "racist word" daubed on the brickwork of their house in the Beechmount Street area of the city, the police have said.

The incident is understood to have happened sometime between 12:00 GMT on Sunday and 08:00 on Monday, the police have said.

Police have appealed to anyone with information, especially those with CCTV; dash-cam or doorbell camera footage, to contact them.

"There is no place in our society for this type of intimidating behaviour and we will continue to engage with local representatives and partner agencies around community safety," the police said.

"Everyone has the right to feel secure in their own home, and we know the people of west Belfast will rightly condemn this disgraceful attack."

Seán Doherty from the Beechmount Residents' Collective community group described the incident as "appalling" and said there was "serious anger in the area" that a home was targeted in this way.

"This is not representative of the community here at all," he told BBC News NI.

"This is an area that has people from many different backgrounds, many different walks of life - which we are very proud of."

Mr Doherty said the community has already rallied around the family that was targeted.