Vandals have smashed and knocked over the headstones of about 130 graves in a Jewish cemetery in Budapest, the head of a Hungarian Jewish organisation said on Wednesday.
The cemetery was closed for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot on Monday and Tuesday and the damage to the graves, made of granite and marble, was only discovered on Wednesday, Gusztav Zoltai, director of the Jewish organisation Mazsihisz, told Reuters.
No slogans or graffiti had been painted on the headstones, he said.
"The number of graves damaged is over 100," Oszkar Sass, a police officer at the scene, told Reuters. "The examination of the scene could take hours or a whole day," He added.
Budapest mayor Gabor Demszky offered a reward of one million forints (USD 4,845), equivalent to more than half a year's wages for an average Hungarian, for information about the damaged graves, state news agency MTI reported.
"This wrecking of the graves is a shameful crime," Demszky was quoted as saying.
The U.S. State Department's 2004 report on religious freedom said anti-Semitism remained a problem in Hungary. Less than one percent of the population said they were followers of Judaism, according to a 2001 census quoted in the report.
"While there were no reports of anti-Semitic violence, representatives of the Jewish community expressed concern over anti-Semitism in some media outlets, in society and in coded political speech," The State Department report said.
Meanwhile, in London
Police are investigating the vandalism of Jewish graves in a cemetery located in London's east end. Vandals broke open the gates of cemetery in West Ham and vandalized nearly 100 headstones.
Overall, 87 stones were pushed over or snapped, police said. In addition, the door to the Rothschild family mausoleum was smashed open. Meanwhile two inverted swastikas were spray-painted on four headstones and neo-Nazi graffiti was drawn on entrance to the mausoleum.
The damage was discovered Sunday by police, who believe that the attack was carried out two weeks before.
Investigators asked the public for help in cracking the case.
Local police official Steve Lane said: "This was a despicable racist attack and we would ask anyone with information about who may be behind it to contact us as soon as possible."
