Lithuanian Jews have urged the country's leaders to take action after vandals daubed the Vilnius community centre with hate graffiti.

The centre's managing director, Simonas Gurevicius, warned that the authorities had not responded strongly enough to previous incidents. "Also, the lack of ethnic and religious understanding taught in the school system provides fertile ground for intolerance," he added.

Shimon Samuels, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, wrote to President Valdas Adamkus to urge action. Pointing out that the attack on Sunday had fallen on the fast day of Tisha B'Av, he added that the perpetrators had "showed a sophisticated knowledge of Jewish history".