Police have vowed to deal “robustly” with any religious or racist reprisals in the wake of last week’s bombings.
The Metropolitan police have recorded a sharp rise in hate crimes following the London attacks, including attacks on mosques, physical attacks and verbal abuse.
In the three days after the bombing, police in London recorded 180 racial incidents. A total of 58 faith-related crimes were recorded, compared with one in the same period last year.
Attacks have also been reported on mosques in Tower Hamlets and Merton, both in London, Telford, Leeds, Bristol, Birkenhead and Gloucester, and on a Sikh temple in Kent.
West Yorkshire police said the front door of the Pakistani consulate in Bradford had been damaged by fire.
In Birkenhead, Wirral, a Muslim man had to be rescued by firefighters as he slept in a room above a mosque which was attacked by arsonists.
Boshir Ullah, 36, said: “I opened my bedroom door to see what was going on, and there was a huge fire inside the mosque. I was terrified for my life. There was nowhere to escape and the fire was coming towards me.”
Brian Paddick, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said yesterday that his officers would not put up with any hate crimes.
Calling for tolerance and co-operation, he said: “We need people from every community to report incidents to the police of any faith hate crime and any other hate crime. Police will deal with these offences robustly.
“We will not tolerate a small minority of people who are using these tragic events last Thursday to stir up hatred.
“Londoners are not attacking each other. They are being united by this terrible tragedy and we need to make sure we all stick together.”
Mr Paddick’s comments came the day after a Muslim man was killed in Nottingham, apparently after being verbally abused. Five youths were arrested after the man died after leaving a shop on Sunday afternoon.