GRAFFITI has been transformed into a symbol of resistance by one Middlesbrough family targeted by BNP activists.

Shaz Amanat, 19, and her brother Nav, 25, made a stand against the far-right movement by transformed the scrawl into a colourful display featuring flowers and butterflies.

The pair picked up their paintbrushes after their parents’ corner shop, Leinster News, had huge letters spelling out BNP daubed in yellow paint across the shop wall.

However, instead of scrubbing it into oblivion, Shaz and Nav decided to turn it into a message of peaceful resistance.

Student Shaz said: “I was on my way to college when I saw it and was startled by it – I didn’t think racism like that was still around.

“With England being such a multi-cultural country, I was quite shocked by it.

“We didn’t want to get rid of it, we wanted to make a statement so me and my brother turned it into something pretty.

“We wanted to stand up to these people and tell them this kind of thing is not right.

“My family have had this business for 15 years, my dad’s got quite a few properties and nothing like this has happened before.

“It’s quite a friendly neighbourhood at this end of town and everybody knows each other.

“We just turned something angry into something beautiful.”

The siblings’ mother said it had been a terrible shock to see the graffiti and condemned those who had targeted the family’s business in Leinster Road, Middlesbrough.

Local residents have taken to social networking to praise the pair for making a stand.

Ian Robinson, who lives nearby and is a regular customer at the corner shop, posted a picture of the transformed graffiti on Facebook and said: “Good on them, it really is perfect and should be on a t-shirt.”

Ms Amanat made her own Facebook post, saying: “It’s sickening racism is still around in today’s society, which has clearly sprung from ignorance.

“However, it’s up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet and hopefully we shall overcome.”

BNP slogans have sprung up in at least two other Middlesbrough locations in recent weeks.