UK police probing damage to Jewish cemetery as hate crime British police say they are investigating vandalism at a Jewish cemetery as a hate crime

LONDON -- Police in northwestern England say they are investigating vandalism at a Jewish cemetery as a hate crime.

The Greater Manchester Police department says parts of the Jewish cemetery in Whitefield were damaged on Friday or Saturday. The force says a prominent headstone was damaged, windows and sinks were smashed, and a surveillance camera system was destroyed.

Superintendent Paul Walker said Sunday the police force was "treating this incident as a hate crime, and I want to send a clear message that incidents of this nature will never be tolerated in our communities."

The Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors anti-Semitism, recorded 1,652 anti-Jewish incidents in the U.K. last year. It said that was a record and 16 percent more than in 2017.