Korans are ripped up in attack at ‘Byker Grove’ Islamic school

AN ISLAMIC school on the former site of the Byker Grove TV set has been ransacked in a suspected hate crime.

Vandals tore Korans, smashed windows and left ‘paraffin and spirits’ on the floor of the all-girls Muslim Bahr Academy in Newcastle.

Northumbria Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman, a 14-year-old girl, two 16-year-old boys and two 14-year-old boys. All six remained in custody last night.

It comes just two months after swastikas were scrawled on the walls of the building.

Muslims have said they are living in fear in the wake of the atrocity in New Zealand earlier this month, in which 50 worshippers were killed by a racist gunman. Five mosques in Birmingham were attacked with sledgehammers in another suspected race-hate attack last week.

Officers were called to the Newcastle school at 9pm on Monday after a neighbour alerted them to suspicious activity in the grounds. Headteacher Muhammad Abdulmuheet arrived shortly afterwards to find its windows had been smashed and there were torn pieces of the Koran scattered around.

Flammable liquid had been poured on the floor and the gang were heard shouting about ‘Muslims’ and ‘terrorists’. Mr Abdulmuheet said: ‘I think they were definitely going to set the building on fire, but luckily they were stopped before they did.’

In January the academy – which opened as a Muslim school in 2010 and charges annual fees of £2,700 – was targeted by racist thugs who daubed swastikas on the walls of the Grade II-listed building. No arrests were made.

The building was home to children’s TV series Byker Grove, which aired between 1989 and 2006 and launched the careers of Ant and Dec. Following the attack in January former cast and crew raised more than £3,000 to help repair the damage.

Newcastle city councillor Habib Rahman said of the latest attack: ‘Everyone has been feeling vulnerable since the New Zealand attack ... incidents like this don’t help calm the situation or alleviate the fear.’