Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has condemned the “shocking sight of rising antisemitism – a swastika sprayed on a car on Yom Kippur in Britain” after a car was daubed with a Nazi symbol in Bristol on Monday.

Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they had launched an investigation into the incident after receiving a phone call from a Jewish resident reporting the appearance of a large swastika in neon yellow paint on a black BMW in the city’s Waters Road area.

In an unexpected intervention, President Rivlin, who spotted the incident after details of it appeared on social media,  tweeted: “Words of condemnation are not enough. We need Holocaust education and remembrance so governments and societies everywhere actively challenge this threat to Jews.”

Local resident Nick Helfenbein  said: “We woke up to our neighbour’s car tagged with a giant neon swastika. It’s Yom Kippur, and this makes me sick both as a Jew and as a human.

“This is the holiest day of the #Jewish year, and to have a swastika suddenly appear right across the street from our flat, in #Bristol of all places, is absolutely harrowing.”

He added he had Holocaust survivors in his family and said: “This causes deep upset and anxiety.”

But the police later said they “do not believe this to have been deliberate targeting due to race or religion”.