“There have been a number of smaller incidents of vandalism of graves in that cemetery over recent months but we have never seen anything on the scale of damage that we witnessed last Friday morning" - Cork City Council.

At the Church of Notre Dames des Enfants in Nimes, the building was smeared with human excrement, the main altar and tabernacle were looted and consecrated hosts were stolen and dumped.

“It holds the bread that we believe has been transformed into the body of Christ. That is what we believe and that is why this act of desecration is so distressing” – Bishop Francis Duffy.

Militants send message of “violence and intolerance” by destroying symbol of Christianity and encouraging Syria's Christians to flee their homeland: Bishop Audo.