PSNI treating Narrow Water poppy damage as 'hate crime'

The wreaths mark the site where 18 soldiers were killed in 1979

Damage to poppy wreaths at Narrow Water in County Down is being treated as a hate crime, police have said.

Eighteen soldiers were killed in an IRA bomb attack at the site near Warrenpoint in August 1979.

It is believed the wreaths were damaged on Saturday or Sunday.

The incident was condemned by Ulster Unionist councillor David Taylor, who said the perpetrators displayed a "petty sectarian mentality".

"It is difficult to comprehend the sickening mindset of the individuals who perpetrated this vile act and I know that this most recent incident will be condemned by the vast majority of right thinking people within the local community," he said.

Wreaths at the Narrow Water site were damaged previously in November 2017.

The 1979 attack at Narrow Water came only hours after the Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, was killed in an IRA bomb attack on his boat in County Sligo.