Vandals spray swastikas on Jewish gravestones in England

LONDON - Vandals have sprayed swastikas and other Nazi insignia on 15 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in southern England, police said Wednesday.

They said the anti-Semitic graffiti had appeared on the gravestones in Aldershot, Hampshire, over the past month.

"This is about the lowest thing anybody can do," Police Constable Andy Gardiner of Hampshire police said. "Any sort of vandalism would be bad enough but to put symbols like these on Jewish graves is a despicable act."

As well as swastikas, the vandals had sprayed SS on some of the graves - a reference to the Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary unit of the Nazi party.

Attacks on Jewish graves have been relatively rare in Britain, home to around 265,000 Jews.

However, members of the Jewish population have warned that anti-Semitism is on the rise.