Narrow Water memorial damage treated as hate crime

Wreaths were found damaged at the site of two IRA bomb attacks which killed 18 soldiers in 1979

Damage to a memorial near Warrenpoint in memory of 18 soldiers killed in two IRA bomb blasts is being treated as a hate crime.

Poppy wreaths and crosses at the Narrow Water memorial were found destroyed on Sunday.

DUP assembly member Diane Forsythe condemned the incident as "disgraceful, hate-fuelled vandalism".

Officers confirmed they were treating it as a hate crime and appealed for witnesses to contact them.

The August 1979 IRA attacks at Narrow Water were carried out hours after Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, Lord Mountbatten, was killed in an IRA bomb attack on his boat in County Sligo in the Republic of Ireland.

The memorial at the site of the Narrow Water killings has been the target of vandalism in previous years, with, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) treating damage to the memorial in 2018 as a hate crime.

Wreaths were thrown from the memorial site onto the banks of the Newry River

On Sunday, wreaths were again found damaged at the memorial, with some also found thrown from the road onto the banks of the Newry River.

'Act of hate'

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie also condemned the vandalism.

"Disgraceful, a pointless act of hate that hurts only those that remember," he said.

Police said the incident could have happened anytime between midday on Saturday and Sunday morning.