Graves were pushed over and damaged

Police investigating the desecration of hundreds of graves at a Jewish cemetery in east London have released four youths on bail.

Police discovered 386 graves had been pushed over or otherwise damaged at the Plashet Cemetery in East Ham on Thursday.

Scotland Yard said the four were arrested in the Newham area on Sunday and were bailed to return in mid-June.

Four youths arrested on Saturday, also in the Newham area, have also been bailed to return in June.

All eight youths are 15 or 16 years old.

Police suspected the damage to the graves was an anti-Semitic attack, but said there was no sign of an organised or systematic effort to cause the destruction.

The graves themselves had not been disturbed.

Jewish groups plan to raise their concerns over the attack with the home secretary.

A monitoring group, the Community Security Trust, recorded 89 anti-Semitic incidents across the UK in the first quarter of this year, a 75% increase on the same period last year.