Police are investigating a suspected hate crime after a man was allegedly caught on CCTV smashing a statue of the Virgin Mary with a hammer outside a New York church.

Footage released by the Diocese of Brooklyn appears to show a masked man repeatedly striking the statue outside St Rita Roman Catholic Church in Long Island City.

Catholic officials said it is the latest in a series of attacks targeting the parish.

According to the church, it is the fourth reported act of vandalism since 2024.

Previous incidents include the destruction of a 60-year-old stained-glass window, graffiti sprayed on a statue of St Francis of Assisi and surrounding pavement, and damage to a statue of St Jude inside the church.

The New York Police Department is investigating the incident, although no arrests have yet been made, according to a statement from the Diocese of Brooklyn to Fox News.

John Quaglione, deputy press secretary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, told the outlet: "This week, the NYPD also issued a crime stats update and hate crimes are up by 9.4% over the same 7-month period (Jan-July) of last year."

The latest incident comes months after a series of attacks on churches in New York City shocked Christian communities.

In October 2025, a masked man allegedly vandalised three churches across Queens, spray-painting messages including "cult" and "anti-gay cult" and defacing religious statues while draped in an LGBTQ Pride flag.

Police investigated those incidents as suspected hate crimes, although no arrests have been announced.

At the time, Father Francis Shannon of St Mary's Star of the Sea Church said the attacks were "really heartbreaking" but urged people not to view the actions of the suspect as representative of the wider LGBTQ community.

"I don’t think this is a big part of the LGBTQ movement since he had the flag," he said. "I think he’s just the exception. I just think he needs to talk it out and not act on it with violence."