Police are appealing for information after pride flags were removed less than a day after being displayed.
A spokesperson said they were investigating the removal of flags from various locations around the Ballymena town centre between 1am and 8am on June 12.
“The report is being treated as a homophobic hate crime at this stage, and police are appealing for anyone with any information which might assist their enquiries, to get in touch,” they added.
LGBTQ+ campaigners Viktorija Rimskiene (25) and Jess McCroary (15) had arranged for the flags to be displayed to mark Pride month and highlight issues.
Ms Rimskiene said that originally only one flag was displayed as a way of “showing support to the community”. This was removed around 12 hours later.
“We didn’t report it that time, I just turned around and bought six more flags,” she said.
“And then the flags arrived we put them up with all the permissions. We spoke to the police, to the council and the Department for Infrastructure.”
She added that five of the flags were ripped down less than a day later at which point the incident was reported to the police.
Ms Rimskiene has praised the police for the response to the incident.
“They’ve been absolutely brilliant and have taken the incident very seriously as well, which has been a breath of fresh air,” she said.
Ms Rimskiene said they were just “trying to break the stigma” faced by some in the LGBTQ+ community and were disappointed by the reaction.