Police are investigating a potential hate crime after anti-Polish signs were allegedly handed out just hours after Britain backed Brexit.

A Polish primary school pupil said he found three or four of the signs outside his school in Cambridgeshire on Friday morning.

The statement on the cards reads: “Leave the EU. No more Polish vermin”, and "go home Polish scum", translated into Polish on the back.

The 11-year-old told the Cambridge News: “The teaching assistants were picking them up and throwing them away because they thought they were really racist. I felt really sad.”

The schoolboy added that he found the same cards outside two other primary schools in Huntingdon.

The cards were reported to Cambs Police by the mother of the boy who are now investigating.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesman said: “We have received a report from a member of the public of hate mail that’s been posted through letterboxes of Polish residents.

“This would constitute a crime and we are investigating it.”

Posting on a Facebook group page for the area, resident Kathleen Gaynor said the notes left her feeling disgusted.

She added: “Was left absolutely disgusted this morning went to pick my mum up to take her shopping as she was coming out she found this (the sign) on her doorstep with a stone on top to make sure it didn’t blow away.

“Whatever anybody’s view in this referendum there is no reason for vile things like this.”

Anyone with information on the signs should call Cambs Police.