A MAN has spoken of his fury after stumbling on a 20ft swastika in the sand as he walked on a beach North-East beach with his Jewish partner.
Mark Willson, 28, of Seaham, County Durham was at Sunderland's Seaburn Beach, with Daniel Kingsley, 21, when he had the "unfortunate displeasure" of finding someone had taken the time to draw the Nazi emblem in the sand.
He said: "I was furious as not only was the beach packed with children, but I happened to stumble across this with my Jewish partner.
"Neither of us realised anti-semitism and Nazi sympathisers were a thing in the area and were shocked and appalled.
"I immediately began to try and erase it from the beach before I snapped a photo. I noticed they had also written I love Nazis in the sand."
Mr Willson added: "I can't believe that this is happening in 2020, in the era of tolerance and promotion of race equality.
"It's concerning the rise of anti-foreign rhetoric around the area, and seeing something that's so throwaway as a drawing in the sand to be used for something so disgusting shows how its being trivialised in our region."
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