Eight ultra-Orthodox Jews have been injured, some seriously, in a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in the London district of Stamford Hill over recent weeks, a senior Jewish official in Britain told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

He also revealed that gravestones in the Jewish section of a municipal cemetery in Aldershot, Hampshire, including those of ex-servicemen, were desecrated over the past few days. This was the second such incident at the cemetery in two months.

In the latest attack by vandals, a total of 12 headstones were defaced with Nazi daubings.

The Stamford Hill attacks on conspicuously dressed ultra-Orhtodox men are believed to have been perpetrated by a gang of up to four men, who have been described as black and Asian.

In some cases, the victims were struck with iron bars, while in others they were punched, kicked and head-butted by their assailants. Some required hospitalization for treatment.

Police are investigating the incidents.

Mike Whine, a senior official at the Community Security Trust (CST), which is dedicated to defending the Jewish community, told the Post he could discern no particular reason for the attacks, which he described as "potentially lethal."

He noted that CST's annual survey of anti-Semitism, which is scheduled to be published next month, would indicate a pattern of rising anti-Semitism and rising violence.