Vandals kicked over 45 headstones at a military cemetery in France for British soldiers, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission said today.
Two headstones were completely destroyed at the Saint Aubert Cemetery, near the northern town of Cambrai, the First World War burial site of 435 soldiers, most of them British, officials said.
Workers were repairing the damage today, they said.
The headstones were believed to have been kicked over on Sunday evening, but police were still investigating, according to Mr Peter Francis, spokesman for the War Graves Commission.
In April, graffiti denouncing the US led war in Iraq was scrawled on monuments at a First World War cemetery in Etaples, near Calais. This time, however, no political, racial or religious inscription had been left, the commission said.
"It looks like a completely mindless act of vandalism," Mr Francis said. All military cemeteries in France are open to the public.
AP