Residents have been asked for information on a suspect behind the appearance of Nazi flags at a mosque in west Belfast.
There was widespread condemnation on Wednesday morning after flags with Swastika and SS symbols were discovered outside the Iqraa mosque and community centre on Ashley Drive in Dunmurry.
A PSNI spokesperson said they were following a number of lines of enquiry and the incident was being treated as a racially motivated hate crime.
“We believe that a male arrived via the Kingsway area at around 10:45pm (on Tuesday) and a number of flags were erected. The male is believed to have left at around 11:20pm on foot towards the Kingsway area following the incident," they said.
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Anyone with dash-cam footage taken between 10.30pm and midnight from the Kingsway area of Dunmurry, or who may have seen anyone suspicious in the area, to call 101 quoting reference 360 for August 23.
Earlier this week, the mosque’s chairman and iman Jamal Iweida said members had been left “intimidated” by the incident.
“We have been working here the last few days, maintaining the building from outside and there are children here and they saw these flags – just very scary and very worrying for them,” he said.
Blaming the threatening behaviour on a minority trying to offend, he said most people in the area remained supportive of the Islamic community.
“We have no doubt it’s a small minority, but the problem (is) sometimes minorities can be aggressive.”
