Hamburg - Vandals desecrated 17 Muslim graves at a cemetery in Hamburg over the weekend, police said Sunday.

The assailants besmeared the graves and overturned headstones and memorial slabs early Saturday, police said. They also daubed a swastika on a piece of linen and draped it over some of the graves.

Police said the attack appeared to be the work of a confused person or persons "without any political knowledge." dpa