Staff at a Gisborne church are cleaning up race-based graffiti that was written overnight.
Staff at the church are displeased by the vandalism, after discovering it on a side of the church that faces the road.
"F**k your religion, f**king stupid white ass bitch ass n***as. This is our f**king land, Māori til I die bitch. F**k pakeha," the graffiti said.
A priest Newshub spoke to asked for any publication of the photograph to be heavily censored due to the language.
He said the church had contacted the police about the tagging and it will be gone soon.
A member of the public Newshub spoke to said they noticed the graffiti while they were dropping children off at school on Thursday morning.
"It just really makes my blood boil and to put that basically at the school, my sons learnt quite a few new words now and I find that disgusting."
Two catholic schools are nearby, St Mary's Catholic Primary School and Campion College.
Police confirmed it was notified of the graffiti at that location on Thursday morning and officers attended the scene just before 9am.
The Gisborne District Council said it had not been officially notified of the incident but was aware of it.
A police spokesperson says it was the only graffiti/wilful damage reported in the area in the past 24 hours.
Newshub.
