ABLAIN-SAINT-NAZAIRE (France), Dec 8: Vandals daubed swastikas and anti-Islam slogans on 500 graves of French Muslim war veterans in an attack that President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned on Monday as “revolting.”

It was the third time over the past two years that Muslim tombstones were desecrated at the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette cemetery, one of the nation’s biggest military graveyards, in northern France.

About 500 of the 576 Muslim graves were defaced on Sunday, the eve of Eidul Azha, and the damage was discovered early on Monday by a passerby, state prosecutor Jean-Pierre Valensi told reporters at the scene.

Dozens of police were scouring the cemetery on Monday as a major probe got under way that was expected to draw in hundreds of law enforcement officials, the prosecutor said.

Sarkozy denounced the latest outrage as “abject and revolting” and said it was “the expression of a repugnant racism directed against the Muslim community of France.”

The president ordered that the perpetrators be quickly found and brought to justice “with the full severity that this requires.” In the latest attack, swastikas and blasphemous slogans against Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and slogans insulting France’s justice minister Rachida Dati were painted on graves, and some 20 nearby Jewish tombstones were also desecrated, according to police.

“At first glance, this looks very much like the previous desecration”, said Valensi.

In April, vandals desecrated 148 Muslim graves, hanging a pig’s head from one tombstone and again taunting Dati, who is of North African descent.

As with the previous attacks, there was broad condemnation from French politicians, and opposition Socialist leader Martine Aubry said “this is hurtful to all French people.”

The anti-racism group SOS Racisme called on authorities to dismantle “the small groups that are active in the region” and said prosecutors from various regions must coordinate efforts to end the attacks.—AFP