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LILLE, France (Reuters) -- Vandals have smashed headstones and crosses at a cemetery for Commonwealth war veterans in northern France, in the latest in a spate of attacks on war graves over the last week.
A team from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission discovered the damage on Wednesday during a maintenance visit to the cemetery in Aix-Noulette, the resting place for mostly British soldiers who died during World War One.
Several tombstones and crosses were broken but there were no signs of graffiti. Police said on Friday that such acts of vandalism were common during school holidays and at weekends.
The incident follows similar attacks on cemeteries at Saint Aubert and Quesnel, where the remains of Britons, Canadians and New Zealanders lie buried. Six youths were arrested on Thursday for questioning.
President Jacques Chirac sent a letter of apology to Britain in April after vandals defaced the graves of British soldiers at Etaples cemetery in northern France with swastikas and slogans.
"This is sadly a part of the summer. It is a problem we have every year, but it was blown up this year because of the Etaples incident," said Roy Hemington, spokesman for the French area office of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
French War Veterans Minister Hamlaoui Mekachera, referring to the attack at Saint Aubert, condemned what he described as "an inadmissible offence" to the memory of foreign soldiers who fought in France in World War One.
The Foreign Ministry also condemned the vandalism and said it hoped the culprits would be found rapidly.
A team from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission discovered the damage on Wednesday during a maintenance visit to the cemetery in Aix-Noulette, the resting place for mostly British soldiers who died during World War One.
Several tombstones and crosses were broken but there were no signs of graffiti. Police said on Friday that such acts of vandalism were common during school holidays and at weekends.
The incident follows similar attacks on cemeteries at Saint Aubert and Quesnel, where the remains of Britons, Canadians and New Zealanders lie buried. Six youths were arrested on Thursday for questioning.
President Jacques Chirac sent a letter of apology to Britain in April after vandals defaced the graves of British soldiers at Etaples cemetery in northern France with swastikas and slogans.
"This is sadly a part of the summer. It is a problem we have every year, but it was blown up this year because of the Etaples incident," said Roy Hemington, spokesman for the French area office of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
French War Veterans Minister Hamlaoui Mekachera, referring to the attack at Saint Aubert, condemned what he described as "an inadmissible offence" to the memory of foreign soldiers who fought in France in World War One.
The Foreign Ministry also condemned the vandalism and said it hoped the culprits would be found rapidly.
to all those French gendarmes attempting to catch the culprits.
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