Moldova’s Great Synagogue has been vandalised with Nazi graffiti.

Members of the Kishinev Jewish community arrived at the building to find that swastikas and other antisemitic abuse had been sprayed around the entrance.

The synagogue is the largest in Moldova. The former Soviet Union country is home to an estimated 23,000 Jews.

The Moldovan chief rabbi said antisemitism was not common in the area,

Rabbi Zalman Abelsky said: "Since I began working in this state 20 years ago, I have never encountered such crass behavior.”

In August a pig’s head was left outside a synagogue in Lithuania, underneath a black Hasidic hat, with peyot (sidelocks) attached and with a star of David carved into it.