TWO bilingual street signs have been stolen in South Belfast.
Police said that at approximately 1.40am on Sunday morning a man entered Haypark Avenue off the Ormeau Road on foot, removed two signs and then walked off in the direction of Ailesbury Road.
Two Haypark Avenue bilingual street signs were removed last night. I have contacted the @PSNIBelfastS and @belfastcc to report this hate crime. This is yet another attack on a vibrant, tolerant and diverse community. pic.twitter.com/7kVg1Ys5ct
— Stevie Jenkins (@steviejenkinsSF) June 9, 2024
He's described as being around 5’11” tall, with short light brown hair, heavy build and was wearing a green coloured t-shirt.
Inspector Luke McAnee said: “We are treating this incident as a sectarian motivated hate crime and I would appeal to anyone with any information about the incident or who has CCTV or doorbell cameras which may have captured footage that could assist with our enquiries, to contact police at Lisburn Road on 101, quoting reference number 448 10/06/24.”
The signage in Haypark Avenue has been vandalised a number of times before this year.
A report can also be made online using the non-emergency reporting form via https://www.psni.police.uk/report or you can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information.
Sinn Féin representative for the area Stevie Jenkins said: "This is yet another attack on a vibrant, tolerant and diverse community."
