Police are treating the burning of a rainbow flag in the state of Georgia as a hate crime.

A woman’s car, which had a Pride flag decorating it, was covered with petrol and set on fire, in Forsyth County.

Police are not revealing her name, in order to protect her safety, but say that she was unharmed.

Much of her front garden was damaged by the fire.

Robin Regan, a spokesman for the police department, told Forsyth News: “From the beginning, we’re treating it as an obvious hate crime, because previously the house had an American flag flying and just on Friday they changed it to a rainbow flag.

“We treat all hate crimes very seriously in Forsyth County, and we will not stand for them.”

The woman had put up the flag to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling bringing same-sex marriage to all 50 states, including Georgia which previously did not allow it.

Some right-wingers in the US have compared the rainbow flag to the Confederate flag, and said it should similarly be removed in the wake of a racist mass shooting in North Carolina.

A politician in Russia said that Facebook should be blocked due to the feature allowing users to add a rainbow flag filter to their profile pictures.