Vandals daubed a swastika on a memorial just moments before a Holocaust remembrance service was due to start this morning.

Police managed to clear away the graffiti before the crowds arrived at Palmers Rest Garden in Grays for the service.

The graffiti is thought to be have been put there between the evening of January 26 and the morning of January 27.

Police are understood to be seeking information about the incident.

Hundreds of people of all different faiths were expected to commemorate International Holocaust Day on January 27.

Communities portfolio holder Cllr Richard Speight, who was at the service to speak, said of the incident:

“The fact that they failed is important; the fact that they tried shows why it is all the more important that we right-thinking people continue to make our views known and continue to hold this ceremony year after year."

"It is a timely reminder that there are thoughtless idiots among us today who think they can ruin such a moving ceremony."

Essex Police said: “Police have been made aware that some offensive graffiti was placed on the Holocaust Memorial in Palmers Rest Garden, Grays. The graffiti has been removed."

Opposition leader Cllr Rob Gledhill, and Thurrock Mayor Cllr Steve Liddiard, were also at the service to speak.

Cllr Gledhill said: “When any group in society joins together and starts to blame others for what they see as ‘the cause of all their problems’, when they blame those who follow a different religion or those of no faith for problems within their society, when they group together shunning others in the community then the seeds of genocide are still present and must do what we can to ensure they do not germinate.”

Cllr Speight said: “Today is a day where Thurrock as a community can come together to remember those who lost their lives not because of what they did or had done, but for who they were. The victims of these genocides committed no crimes. They were people like us. Their only crime was to be different, and to be persecuted for that difference."

“Once a year we say ‘never forget’ and ‘never again’ but we need to remember that the road to the horrors of Auschwitz, of Rwanda, of Srebnica and many - too many - others, begins with small steps of intolerance.”

Mayor of Thurrock, Cllr Steve Liddiard opened the event by saying: “It is incumbent upon each and every one of us who is just one step removed from these horrors to make sure the younger people today know – and more importantly understand – what happened."

“Each and every one of those deaths was – and is – a tragedy. Each one should make us say “never again” and each one should bear down on our conscience when we ignore it happening again.”

There were Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Christians present at the service.

Anybody with any information about this incident is asked to contact Essex Police on 101 quoting incident 290 of January 27.