Alarmed villagers have been told not to panic over the appearance of racist graffiti.

The letters RNF - meaning Rayne National Front - have been scrawled in black pen across road and village signs in Rayne.

Parish council chairman Roger Jiggins has assured residents the slogan is a wind-up and there is no threat of a racist extremist militant group in the village.

He said: "Some young people told me the graffiti is supposed to stand for Rayne National Front. But in reality it's a case of a small group of youngsters wanting to annoy and terrify residents," he added.

"They're just using the slogan as a form of graffiti which they know will offend and annoy people in the village - particularly the elderly."

PC Dave Blackburn, beat officer for Rayne, said it was mindless vandalism.

"Everyone is assuming it is a group of youngsters in the village but it could just as easily be a passing motorist who has scrawled the words on.

"The assumption among people in the village is the words stand for Rayne National Front but we're looking at the graffiti as vandalism rather than racially motivated.

Braintree Council has now been contacted to remove the graffiti - a problem which has plagued Rayne for a number of years.

District councillor Anthony Meadows said people would feel threatened by the latest incident. He added: "The village hall and the cricket pavilion have had obscene words written on them in the past and it is unacceptable.

"We are getting the kind of things that shouldn't happen in a village. If people are unhappy about where they live then they should do the obvious thing and move elsewhere rather than make residents' lives a misery."

"But we have got a bunch of idiots in the village and we are looking at ways of resolving the situation."

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