Leighton Buzzard: Police cars and town buildings suffer graffiti damage

Bedfordshire Police vehicles were sprayed with blue paint in the early hours of Sunday

Two police vehicles were left out of action after being daubed with graffiti over the weekend, a force said.

Bedfordshire Police said the vandalism, which included racist and homophobic comments, was also sprayed on buildings in Leighton Buzzard on Sunday.

Officers believed the criminal damage took place between 02:00 and 03:00 BST and the offenders were thought to have been riding bikes.

The force said it was "pursuing several lines of inquiry".

It has called for anyone with information to contact them.

The damaged police cars were parked at Leighton fire station in Lake Street, where the two emergency services share facilities and office space.

The force said officers worked "outside of their shifts" to clean the vehicles, which were attacked in Leighton Buzzard, near Dunstable

"The vehicles that had been subjected to criminal damage in the early hours of this morning are now back on the road and able to be deployed to police the area thanks to officers working outside of their shifts to clean them up," a social media post said.

"It is disappointing that as well as our own vehicles being targeted by such mindless actions, local businesses and buildings were also graffitied. Officers have again cleaned up what is possible.

"We won't tolerate such behaviour, neither the vandalism or the hate crime connected to it, and will continue to review the evidence to find those responsible."

The force said its hate crime team had been notified and would take on that part of the investigation.