Greg told radio station 3AW the Nazi symbols had been there up to five days but "no one has decided to do anything about it". Swastikas on the building. Credit:Zach Hope He said vandals would have put themselves at risk to paint in that location. "It looks like they've gone over the top and hung themself over the edge," he said. Caydon Property Group, which plans to develop the site, said it was arranging for the swastikas to be covered up or removed as soon as possible.

"Caydon is aware of and disgusted that vandals have graffitied parts of the Nylex site with swastikas," a spokesman said. "Despite security measures in place, vandals do occasionally gain access to the site." The spokesman said Caydon strongly discouraged illegal entry and would refer instances of it to police. Yarra City Council first received reports of the graffiti about 10.30am on Wednesday. "The graffiti is on private property that we currently cannot access, so we will be working with the site developers to ensure safe removal as soon as possible," a spokesman said.

The vandalism comes after Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich in August said there had been an "epidemic" of swastikas across Melbourne. Dr Abramovich said the vandalism had reached unprecedented levels. Aliza's Place Cafe in Chadstone was targeted twice in two days. An elderly care facility in Caulfield which houses Holocaust survivors was defaced. Banners belonging to Josh Frydenberg and other political candidates were repeatedly defaced during the last federal election. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "Hitler Youth" and "Hitler was right!" were scrawled on two walls in Ashburton near a TAFE. In Brighton, a large sign depicting a swastika inside a Star of David was placed on a private property. Nazi-themed vandalism has also been removed from children's playgrounds in McKinnon and Carnegie, a West Footscray mall, train stations, a church in Bentleigh, a car belonging to a Jewish family and properties in Oakleigh and Hughesdale.

Dr Abramovich said on Wednesday Melbourne's swastika "plague" was continuing unabated. Loading "The swastika, the ultimate symbol of pure barbarity, dehumanisation and unprecedented genocide, has been weaponised by neo-Nazis and white-supremacists to sow fear, harass and intimidate," he said. "This is cruel and chilling, and will shock the conscience of every Australian," he said. "For Holocaust survivors, who lost relatives in the Holocaust, seeing this ugly emblem of monstrosity is as threatening as being confronted by a gun, and tears a hole in their heart."

Dr Abramovich called for state and federal governments to make swastika vandalism and graffiti a hate crime. The public display of the swastika in Australia is not illegal. Loading "While there are issues that we disagree on, we are a country that stands united in condemning intolerance in all its ugly forms," he said. The Anti-Defamation Commission sounded the alarm again earlier this month after incidents of anti-Semitism in Victorian schools. In two separate incidents, a 12-year-old boy was forced to kneel down and kiss the shoes of a Muslim classmate, while a five-year-old boy was allegedly called a "Jewish cockroach" and repeatedly hounded in the school toilets by his young classmates.