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Police dived into an east London canal to retrieve 150 Islamic books – only to discover they had been dumped there deliberately.

It is thought a “well meaning” believer had put the books in the Limehouse Cut after misunderstanding the rules for proper disposal of the Koran.

Traditionally, people who need to dispose of Islamic texts are expected to put them in water to disintegrate, or to burn them – they should not be simply thrown away.

But this does not, of course, eliminate the need to comply with fly-tipping legislation.

Salman Farsi, a spokesman for the nearby East London Mosque, told the Standard the person who dumped the books would be “admonished” for breaking the law – if they could be identified.

“You can put books in water and hope the text kind of fades away and disintegrates,” he explained, “or burn them and put the ashes in water.

“I think it’s someone from our community who’s basically taken the wrong guidance on how to dispose of these.

Limehouse Cut just now recovering around 200 dumped text books. Any info please to @MPSTowerHam police via 101 pic.twitter.com/wHSbBrebtk — MPSonthewater (@MPSonthewater) November 19, 2015

“I would just say it’s a harmless misunderstanding.

“Although there is an explanation as to why you would put 150 text books into a canal, there’s obviously environmental concerns – so we’re very grateful to the police for fishing them out and making contact with us.”

The books will now be disposed of by a local cemetery.

“If they’re put in an industrial grade incinerator I don’t think they’ll need to be dried out first,” Mr Farsi added.

He dismissed suggestions the books may have been dumped as some sort of hate crime.

“If someone wanted to make a statement they’d have set the whole pile alight in the middle of a park,” he reasoned.

Police liaised with local Mosques. Islamic text placed in water as part of religious practice. Nothing untoward. https://t.co/KvevlMXq0L — Tower Hamlets MPS (@MPSTowerHam) November 19, 2015

“For someone to put it in water, I think they had the understanding you couldn’t just throw religious texts away.”

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said there was "no evidence of any hate crime”.

He said: “Police were called at 8.27am on Thursday to Limehouse Cut to reports of Islamic texts in the water.

“Two local officers and three officers from the Marine Support Unit attended and one MSU officer entered the water and removed 180 to 200 religious texts.

“Local enquiries are being made to find the source of the books.

“However there is no evidence of any hate crime.”