Four Danish buses torched and daubed with 'anti-Israel' graffiti

Danish police have launched an investigation

Four buses at Copenhagen Bus Company Arriva's garage in Oesterbro (ap)

Danish police are investigating after four buses in Copenhagen were set ablaze and daubed with “anti-Israel” slogans.

Officers are examining a possible link between the vandalism and the decision by city transit authorities to remove pro-Palestine advertisements calling for a boycott on Israeli goods last week.

Investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said there “could be a political motive. We consider this one theory.” But he added that the police could not “link it to anything for now.”

The Danish-Palestinian Friendship Association, which paid for the adverts, said they work “to influence the Danish public and the Danish authorities to do more for the Palestinians' right to self-determination."

The controversial adverts, featured on 35 buses across the city, showed two Palestinian women claiming they “conscience is clean” as they “neither buy products from the Israeli settlements nor invest in the settlement industry.”

Movia Bus Company removed the adverts, labelling them “unnecessarily offensive”, after receiving close to 100 complaints, a spokesperson told the BBC.

Additional reporting by Associated Press