In a hate crime, a Hindu temple has been vandalised in the US state of Kentucky by miscreants who sprayed black paint on the deity and wrote repugnant messages on the walls.
The incident happened between Sunday night and Tuesday morning at the Swaminarayan Temple in the Louisville city, authorities said.
There are no suspects but an investigation is ongoing, police said.
Temple officials said no video of the incident is available.
According to local media reports, vandalism resulted in deity image sprayed with black paint, broken windows, walls spray-painted with inappropriate messages and graffiti. A knife was stabbed in the chair and cabinets were emptied.
The incident has sent shock waves through the Indian-American community in Louisville Kentucky.
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Authorities are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Condemning the incident of vandalism, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer called upon the city residents to stand up against this hatred.
"Anytime we see hatred or bigotry we will stand against it. The cowards who did this have only given our community more fuel and determination to embrace compassion, understanding, and each other," Fischer said as he visited the vandalised temple Wednesday.
"Sometime between the end of services at the Swaminarayan Temple on Bardstown Road on Sunday and the time a repairman arrived on Tuesday morning, vandals broke into a window and vandalised spots throughout the building," he said.
The vandalism of this temple, Fischer said is another example of the work "we still have to do as a city and a nation to make sure we live to our ideals of equality, of a country where everyone is treated with the respect we all deserve."
Fischer said that the vandals wrote "repugnant messages of hate."