Arrest over burglary of ex-Israeli president bust

Footage released on social media showed a glass cabinet containing two busts being smashed with a hammer

Police investigating a burglary in which a bust of the first president of Israel was stolen from a university have arrested a man.

The man, 25, was held over the incident at the University of Manchester's chemistry building in the city's Oxford Road.

Busts of the first Israel president, Chaim Weizmann, who worked at the university in the early 20th Century, and another former academic, Harold Baily-Dixon, were taken in the incident on 1 November.

The Palestine Action Group said at the time it had "abducted" the busts to mark the Balfour Declaration of 2 November, 1917, in which British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour supported establishing a "national home for Jewish people".

'Appalling'

In the aftermath of the incident, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the incident had been "an appalling act of vandalism" and that he "supported the University of Manchester in reassuring all students and staff, particularly those from the Jewish community, of their safety on campus".

The break-in, which was filmed and released on social media, came as the London offices of the Britain-Israel Communications and Research Centre and the Jewish National Fund were allegedly targeted by Palestine Action Group.

The group also claimed responsibility for spraying red paint over buildings at the University of Cambridge ahead of the 2 November anniversary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Greater Manchester Police said it had executed search warrants earlier as part of the investigation.

Det Ch Inspector Jill Billington, said: "We know that this incident has caused considerable distress across the community, many of which have come to Manchester to work and study.

"We understand that this has caused upset and unrest and we know that the shockwaves are being felt much wider than the local student community."