Pig's head left outside centre

Police have launched an investigation after a pig's head was left outside a community centre being used as a Muslim place of worship.
Leicestershire Police said the incident in the Thurnby Lodge area of Leicester was being treated as a religiously-motivated offence.

The pig's head was discovered at about 7.30am on Boxing Day by members of a Muslim group arriving at the entrance to the community centre in Thurncourt Road.

Commenting on the incident, Superintendent Mark Newcombe, of Leicester Police, said: "The only people using the community centre on Wednesday were from a local Muslim group and it's easy to draw the conclusion that the pig's head was meant for them, and is the reason we believe this to be religiously-motivated.

"Since the incident was reported to us we have been working with the Muslim group to find out as much as we possibly can, along with carrying out CCTV and other inquiries.

"We have no tolerance for discrimination in Leicester, be that racially or religiously-motivated, and we want members of the public to help us do all we can to find those responsible and bring them to justice."

Muslims are forbidden from eating pork and previous incidents in other parts of the UK have seen extremists prosecuted for similar attempts to cause upset to members of the Islamic community.

Condemning those behind the latest incident, Supt Newcombe added: "The behaviour of those responsible is completely unacceptable, however, there are a lot of good people in this community and it is these people we are appealing to.

"We're sure someone knows who is involved and we would urge them to come forward and help us."