1,300 crimes reported at West Midlands places of worship

Crimes include arson and criminal damage, theft and violence against the person with churches and mosques the two most common targets.

The figures have been branded as 'worrying' and 'unacceptable' by members of the community.

The Jamia Masjid Bilal & Community Centre in Newhampton Road West, the Shri Guru Ravidass Temple on Dudley Road and the Darlington Street Methodist Church on School Road are in the top 10 places of worship in the West Midlands with the highest number of crimes committed.

The Guru Nanak Gurdwara Temple in Smethwick, the largest in Europe, and the Church at Junction 10 in Walsall are also in the top 10.

The Jamia Masjid Bilal & Community Centre is second on the list, behind only St Phillips Cathedral in Birmingham.

Councillor Wendy Thompson, the conservative party leader in Wolverhampton, said: "This is worrying. What sort of people are these who would be committing crimes at places of worship that should be places of sanctuary?

"It's another statistic that we don't want for Wolverhampton.

"I know it causes distress for worshippers and the people who care about these buildings.

"Clearly these are crimes that shouldn't be happening.

"Birmingham is a far bigger area than Wolverhampton so it wouldn't be a surprise if that had more. But for Wolverhampton to have more does raise concerns and it is very worrying.

"I think the police will try their best to police this but they can't be everywhere at once so neighbours and people who use these places of worship need to be vigilant."

A total of 1,319 crimes have been committed across the West Midlands at places of worship, including 798 at a cathedral/chapel/church, 152 at a mosque, eight at a synagogue, 110 at a temple and 251 are marked as unknown.

Of these 1,319 crimes, 242 are arson and criminal damage, 288 are burglary, 204 are violence and 462 are theft.

There were also 31 sexual offences.

Iftikhar Ahmed, who is on the committee of the Central Mosque which was the target of a bomb attack in 2013, said: "This is absolutely unacceptable.

"My reaction is that attacks like these are always worrying whether it's a religious place or not. These figures are not a nice thing to hear. Of all the places religious buildings should be safe and protected."

But Billy Corrigan, spokesman for West Midlands Police, was keen to point out that in some cases the crime might not have been committed at the place of worship, it was just the nearest identifiable landmark.

He said: "Out of just the three Wolverhampton addresses, the incident or crime may not necessarily have occurred on the place of worships premises, rather the place of worship may be the nearest identifiable landmark and so has been entered into the crime report.

"It would be misleading to suggest all of the offences took place at the venues."

Attacks in recent years include a bomb plot at the Wolverhampton Central Mosque and bricks being thrown at the Bait-ul-Ata Mosque on Willenhall Road.

The bomb plot at the Central Mosque was part of a one-man race war by Pavlo Lapshyn, who is currently serving life and a minimum of 40 years in prison.

The bomb at the Central Mosque was the third Mr Lapshyn had placed at mosques around the Black Country in his 90-day reign of terror.

In a separate set of figures revealed by the Express & Star earlier this year, it emerged that there had been more than 2,500 racist attacks in the West Midlands in 2014.

This was the highest number of attacks since 2009 and the figure was up by almost 1,000 in the space of two years.