This is the sickening moment an armed thug caved in four statues’ faces at a Hindu temple in a callous hate crime attack.
The grainy clip, which was filmed from a nearby CCTV camera, shows the black hoody-wearing man repeatedly swinging what is believed to be a wooden stick at the religious sculptures outside the Gujarati Hindu Social and Cultural Centre.
A member of the Ford Street-based place of worship said the repair work could go into the thousands and claims this is the third attack, which took place at around 1am on June 19, in as many months.
The source – who did not want to be named – also fears that the attacks could escalate.
“Our community are worried that the attacker might target a person next,” he said. “There is growing concerns that we are being targeted by someone from the area.”
He added: “All but one of the four statues were attacked and broken. “One even had its entire face ripped off.
“The statues are custom-made so to replace them will be very expensive – we may even have to replace the whole frontage.
“We feel targeted and we see this as a potentially religiously motivated crime given the history of antagonism in the past. We have expressed this to the police and they have told us they have logged it as such.
“I know nationally the Hindu community doesn’t feel listened to. We are a very genteel community and we don’t demand much.
“We keep ourselves to ourselves but slowly we are starting to feel like our concerns aren’t being considered, especially compared to some other communities who are either more vocal, more demanding or more belligerent.”
Police have confirmed they’re currently investigating the attack as criminal damage and is urging anyone with information to contact them.
A spokeswoman for the force said: “Police have received two reports of criminal damage to statues outside a community hall and temple on Ford Street in the Pleck area of Walsall.
“The first incident took place just before 10am on Monday, June 10, where religious statues were smashed and the second happened sometime after 11pm on Wednesday, June 19, where four more religious figurines were smashed.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact police via Live Chat at west-midlands.police.uk between 8am and midnight or call 101 anytime, quoting crime reference 20WS/147794M/19 or 20WS/137218F/19.”
Birmingham Live