YOUNGSTERS are defacing numbers on T-shirts so they resemble the swastika when viewed from a distance, a councillor has warned.

Cllr Zoe Kirk-Robinson says she has noticed that the “worrying new trend” has taken hold among youths who frequent Bolton town centre.

The symbol, which was adopted by the Nazis, is associated with the horrors of the Second World War.

Cllr Kirk-Robinson says the youngsters, who appear to be aged around 16 or 17 “distress or otherwise damage” shirts bearing the numbers 55, 69 or 88 — the number Neo-Nazis use as an abbreviation for “Heil Hitler”.

And despite their youth, she does not believe they are ignorant of the swastika’s significance.

She said: “It’s a small group of people and it’s best to nip it in the bud.

“I think they clearly know what it is, it’s probably just some kids trying to be ‘edgy’ and shock people.

“I think it’s quite right to stamp it out, they need to realise that although we have freedom of expression in this country, there are certain things you just don’t do. They are unacceptable.”

The Westhoughton North and Chew Moor councillor raised the matter at the recent full meeting of Bolton Council.

She told the council chamber: “50 million people died as a result of the monsters who marched under the swastika in the 30s and 40s, and to see that symbol worn in our streets, even in an underhand manner like this, is unacceptable.

“This covert display of a racist symbol has no place in Bolton.”

She invited Labour’s community cohesion spokesman, Cllr Akhtar Zaman to “condemn the disgusting racist display in the strongest possible terms”.

Cllr Zaman told councillors the disturbing trend was “clearly wrong” and Cllr Kirk-Robinson said she was satisfied with his pledge to tackle the problem.

She said: “He is rightly concerned and I think they are a going to take that forward and that’s all I wanted, it’s good it’s got that cross-party support.”