Police have ramped up patrols in Bournemouth after a spate of ‘extremely concerning’ anti-Semitic attacks.
A Jewish teenager was shot with an airgun on his way to his synagogue and swastikas were daubed on Jewish homes over the weekend.
The attacks come amid reports of rising anti-Semitism across Britain, sparked by Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the October 7 atrocities.
The most serious of the incidents in the seaside town came on Saturday afternoon, in the East Cliff area, which houses a significant Jewish community, when a teenage boy was walking to the synagogue accompanied by one other person.
A car stopped close to them, and the driver shouted obscenities at the pair before firing an airgun at the boy. The pellet struck the teenager on the forehead. Luckily it caused only superficial physical injuries. Police are treating it as a ‘hate crime’.
