The temple was attacked in two separate incidents (Picture: Cascade News)

Vandals have smashed up religious statues with a bat outside a Hindu temple in two separate attacks.

Temple leaders have been left devastated after finding the figures destroyed, with one’s face entirely broken off, outside the Shree Ram Mandir in Walsall, West Midlands.

President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, described the heartbreak and shock felt by the community in the wake of the attack.

In a statement he said: ‘It is shocking for the worldwide Hindus to hear about such incidents happening to a Hindu house of worship.


‘This causes heartbreak to the hard-working, harmonious and peaceful area Hindu community by receiving such signals of hatred and intimidation.



‘British Hindus have made lot of contributions to the nation and society and continue to do so.’

The community has been left heartbroken by the incidents (Picture: Cascade News)

The temple manager said they will be expensive to replace as they need to be imported from India (Picture: Cascade News)

Staff member Jagu Patel, described seeing CCTV footage showing the attack.

He said: ‘We saw some pictures on the CCTV footage of somebody coming in from the side and he came in with what looked like a cricket bat or a

hockey stick.

‘He hit the statue several times while speaking to one of his colleagues, who was sitting in his car.

‘He then came back again and he badly damaged some of the statues, running away with the face of one of the statues.’

Some of the statues were smashed in the first incident outside the temple in Ford Street, Pleck, at about 10am on June 10, before a second attack was carried out just nine days later at around 11pm.

The temple, which also serves as a community centre, has been part of the area since the 1980’s and has not suffered an attack such as this before.

The manager still has no idea why the temple was targeted (Picture: Cascade News)

Police are appealling for information (Picture: Google Maps)

Jagu said: ‘We just want to know why the people who did this did so. They don’t get anything from this and it just seems senseless.

‘We’ve never had this before and it’s very sad, as we are a Hindu temple in a quiet area of Walsall and we feel that every person should live peacefully with heart and soul.’

He added that replacing the statues was going to be difficult and expensive as they will have to be imported from India.

He said: ‘We haven’t received any costs yet for replacing the statues as we’re still awaiting estimates.

‘They are over 22 years old and the only way we can replace them is through a contact in India, which will cost us a lot of money in shipping costs.’

A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police confirmed the attack, adding that anyone with information is urged to contact police on 101, quoting crime reference 20WS/147794M/19 or 20WS/137218F/19.

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