A racist mob chanting “Ku Klux Klan” targeted the north London homes of two branches of a Turkish family early on Monday morning.
Residents called the police after their homes in Edmonton and Tottenham, in the neighbouring boroughs of Enfield and Haringey respectively, were disturbed by people in masks screaming that they were from the white supremacist group.
Outside one home the initials “KKK” were left scratched into the frost on the windscreen of a car. The case was highlighted by a friend, Peray Ahmet, a councillor for Haringey, who posted a photo of the car on Twitter.
This is what a friend of mine woke up to. Last night a mob (with covered faces ) were chanting 'KKK' outside house.… https://t.co/IGLNH63RfM
The family members who were directly affected were too frightened to speak to reporters or make their details public. But a relative who lives elsewhere in London confirmed that both her cousin and her brother had their homes targeted in related incidents last night.
The victims' relative told BuzzFeed News: “I got a call this morning at about 6 o’clock from my cousin sounding really scared.
"My family and their neighbour heard people shouting the name 'Ku Klux Klan' twice. They were screaming and running away at the same time. It’s very, very scary and my cousin’s wife wants to move out now. She just doesn’t want to live there any more.
“In this neighbourhood they know if people aren’t white. But it’s the first time something like this has happened. I imagine it’s people supporting Trump."
"In this neighbourhood they know if people aren’t white."
In a statement, the Metropolitan police confirmed it had been called to an address in Edmonton to investigate reports of offensive graffiti written on the frosty window of a car.
There have been no arrests and inquiries continue, the spokesperson said.
The case follows a sharp increase in racist incidents in the Tottenham area. Last September a man ran up behind a young woman and ripped off her hijab in Tottenham High Road in a racially motivated attack.
Haringey has seen a 52.4% rise in hate crime motivated by race and religion. In 2016 there were 675 incidents recorded by the Met.
Ahmet, who first raised the case on Monday morning, said she is worried about the rise of Islamophobia in the area. “I’ve lived in Haringey all my life and during the Brexit campaign I heard people saying, ‘I’m voting out because I don’t want to live next door to dirty Turks.’
“I also saw a guy standing in the middle of the road on the day of the referendum shouting, ‘I want my fucking country back.’ There’s a rise in Islamophobia that I do think has become normalised.”