பர்மிங்காமில் 5 பள்ளிவாசல்கள் மீது வன்முறை தாக்குதல் - தொழுகையை நிறுத்தோமென, முஸ்லிம்கள் அறிவிப்பு

21.03.2019

Five mosques in Birmingham have been targeted in a string of violent attacks overnight and into the morning.

Reports of a man smashing windows with a sledgehammer on Birchfield Road were received at 02:30 GMT, police said.

Officers 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.

West Midlands Police said it was yet to establish a motive.

Officers from its Counter Terrorism Unit were investigating, the force said. 

Yousef Zaman, chairman of Masjid Faizul Islam mosque in Aston, said: "My initial reaction was shock that this had happened. 

"There's a fear factor now in that adults are saying they're going to keep their children away from the mosque today because they're worried that it's not safe. 

"But we're not going to stop worship, we're going to carry on as normal, we won't let them win, we will defy them."

He said a summit was planned to discuss security around the mosques. 

A spokesperson for Witton Islamic Centre on Witton Road, also in 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".

Councillor Majid Mahmood tweeted a video of the clean-up taking place at the centre.