Police say a Preston man has been arrested and sectioned under the Mental Health Act

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A 47-year-old man has been arrested after racist graffiti was scrawled outside a mosque entrance in Lancashire. Police had received three reports of graffiti being written on a gatepost at the Masjid e-Salaam mosque in Preston since Thursday night.

On Sunday, police said a local man had been arrested and later sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

In a statement, Lancashire police said: “Police have been making a number of inquiries throughout the weekend and have this afternoon arrested a man in connection with the investigation.

“A 47-year-old-man from Preston has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage. He has since been assessed and sectioned under the Mental Health Act.”

The first offence took place outside the mosque some time overnight between Thursday and Friday. A hate crime investigation was launched and the writing was removed from the gatepost, but a second report of graffiti in the same location was made to police on Saturday at 10.45pm.

At 6.15am on Sunday, a further report was made that more offensive writing had been added to the gatepost.

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On Friday, the mosque’s official Twitter account posted a photograph of the words scrawled at the site entrance, alongside a photograph after it was cleaned up.

An accompanying message read: “Before and after … all cleaned up in readiness for the main Friday prayers.

“Our mosque is open for all and do not harbour any evil for those who wish otherwise.”