A Jewish cemetery in New York state has been vandalised – the third burial ground in the US to be attacked in the past two weeks.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered police on Thursday to investigate the desecration of more than a dozen headstones at the Waad Hakolel Cemetery in Rochester.

“The State Police Hate Crimes Task Force, in partnership with federal and local authorities, have launched aggressive investigations into reported hate crimes across the state,” Mr Cuomo said.

The attack comes in the wake of a wave of bomb threats to hit Jewish community centres across the country over the past two months.