The mayor of a regional city in Australia has clapped back with a Bible verse of his after vandals graffitied a rainbow crossing with Bible scripture.

Isaac Smith is the mayor of Lismore, a coastal town about 700km (435 miles) north of Sydney. It plays host to the LGBTI New Year’s Eve festival, Tropical Fruits.

In December, the town unveiled its rainbow crossing on the Magellan St shopping strip.

But on 31 December a vandal graffitied the crossing with black spray paint, ‘GEN 9:13’.

That refers to the Bible verse which reads: ‘I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth’.

Cr Smith said the vandalism ‘disappointed’ him and would ensure council investigated the incident.

‘I think the rainbow is a symbol that everybody can appreciate and to have somebody graffiti it, it’s really disrespectful to the whole community,’ he told Lismore media.

The mayor then clapped back to the graffiti with another Bible proverb.

‘If these people are Christians, I think they should look at their actions and maybe remember proverb 25:28 that says: “A person without self control is like a broken city”, that might be a more useful verse to keep in mind,’ he said.

Cr Smith promised the council would repair the crossing, but could not say when it would be finished by.

‘We’ll be looking into who did it but really I’m not into naming and shaming, I’m more about bringing the community together and I think we need to make sure these people understand that you don’t need to claim something as your own and take it away from others to enjoy it,’ he said.