Less than a week after Christchurch horror, five mosques attacked in UK

Birmingham, March 21: In less than a week after deadly shooting incidents in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, left 50 people dead, five mosques were attacked in Birmingham, UK, in a string of violent attacks. In all the attacks, the windows of the mosques were smashed.

Reports of attacks on the religious institutions with a sledgehammer were reported from Birchfield Road, Erdington, Aston, Perry Barr and Albert Road within a span of less than eight hours.

West Midlands Police said it was yet to establish a motive behind the series of attacks, BBC reported, and the Counter Terrorism Unit launched investigation.

Yousef Zaman, chairman of Masjid Faizul Islam mosque in Aston, was quoted as saying: "My initial reaction was shock that this had happened. There's a fear factor now in that adults are saying they're going to keep their children away from the mosque today because they're worried that it's not safe."

Zaman also said that they were not going to stop their worship because of the act and added that a summit was planned to discuss setting up security around the religious places for Friday prayers.

A spokesperson for Witton Islamic Centre on Witton Road, also in Aston, said that footages captured by CCTV showed a man smashing windows of the mosque, BBC reported.

While Home Secretary Sajid Javid described the vandalism at the mosque "deeply concerning and distressing", Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington Jack Dromey supported the city's Muslim community. MP for Birmingham Ladywood Shabana Mahmood called the attacks "truly terrible".