This is the moment hammer-wielding vandals splashed a London home with red paint in a suspected turf war among Chinese gangs.
Properties across England have been vandalised and spray-painted with the word ‘brothel’ as part of a series of mysterious nighttime attacks over the last year and a half.
The motive for the attacks has been unclear, with speculation they could be part of a protest – but now the finger has been pointed at Chinese organised crime gangs.
New CCTV footage obtained by London Centric has for the first time recorded the attackers speaking in Mandarin with accents associated with northern China.
The video, filmed earlier this month, shows a man using a hammer to smash the windows of a property in Acton, West London, as two associates deface it with pots of paint and motor oil.
Oliver Chan, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Birmingham, has suggested the attacks were carried out by gangsters attempting to intimidate rivals running brothels or people in debt to loan sharks.
Neighbours of some of the properties targeted in London have received handwritten notes through their letterboxes stating that a nearby property is a brothel – although whether any actually are remains unclear.
More than a dozen attacks have happened in London over the past 18 months, with more reported in Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Reading, Huddersfield and Clacton-on-Sea.
A man smashes a window with a hammer during a night time attack in Acton earlier this month
Two associates are then seen hurling cans of red pain and motor oil at the front of the property
Red paint daubed on a house on Chingford Road in Walthamstow, north London
Mr Chan said that ‘red paint splashing’ was a tactic regularly used by loan sharks in Hong Kong and cities in mainland China to remind the owners to pay their debts or as an ‘intimidation act’ against rivals.
‘The use of red paint, instead of other-colour paints, traditionally symbolises anger and impulsion,’ he told The Times.
‘It is used to threaten or to intimidate someone they want to warn, in many instances their debtors, and is common in Chinese societies, especially in the southern part of China and neighbouring countries of major Chinese communities or societies.
‘It is more commonly seen as a threat or warning to those who are in debt to loan sharks, who often operate in an organised criminal network’.
Last week, two houses and a tool shop in Walthamstow, east London, were vandalised with red and black paint in the early hours of Thursday.
One victim, who asked to remain anonymous, said their CCTV had caught around three to five men walking ‘brazenly’ through the street with paint at around 2.30am.
Another told MailOnline that their children were terrified and woke up thinking the red paint sprayed on the window was ‘blood’.
Neighbours living around Chingford Road and Cazenove Road where the incident took place said they were unaware of allegations the main target of the attack was a brothel.
The word ‘brothel ‘graffitied on the corner of a house in Walthamstow
Council officials have been trying to remove the red paint from the property
Last week, two houses and a tool shop in Walthamstow, east London , were vandalised with red and black paint in the early hours of Thursday morning
One said: ‘I do not know who lives there. I think the attack happened in the evening – that is all.’
Another added: ‘I just woke up and saw it. Everyone has been talking about it on our WhatsApp chat. We had no idea.’
It came three weeks after a row of houses in nearby Leytonstone also had red paint and motor oil thrown over the front of them.
The properties on Norman Road were attacked at around 2.30am on February 19, with a bed-and-breakfast – the main target of the attack – accused of being a brothel.
One local told MailOnline he and his partner have been left with up to £15,000 worth of ‘extensive’ damage to their property which dates from 1892.
He said: ‘The cost of the damage is extensive. We are fortunate as we have insurance. But I think for people renting or if you are a new homeowner – this could be devastating for you.
‘This is at the extreme end but we got a quote yesterday, for that it would be around £15,000. And that is because they have thrown motor oil on the brick which date from 1892.
‘Our brick is very old. It is very porous. It might be that you just can’t get the oil out and you need to replace all the bricks on the front of the property.
‘So like, there’s really extreme options. So you know, it could range from £3,000 or £4,000 all the way up that £15,000 if you wanted to.
A graffiti removal expert attempts to remove the red paint as part of a clean up operation
There has been intense speculation over the motive behind the vandalism
‘The paint looks very violent but the motor oil is slightly more insidious. When it happened that was the most scary. It had a very pungent smell.
‘So yes the oil was probably worse than the paint. It was quite serious damage to a house like ours.’
The homeowner said they first noticed something was wrong when they woke up at around 7am on February 19.
He said: ‘Obviously we were concerned that it had just been targeted towards our house. We have lived here for five years and never felt unsafe.
‘We then went out to the front of the house, and it seemed that it had happened again for a stretch of houses.
‘The paint and the oil had been thrown all over the front of the properties. We phoned the police immediately. It was around 7 o’clock in the morning.
‘They said they just couldn’t send anyone out. But they gave us a crime number and said there is nothing much we can do. They said as long as we recorded what the state of the property was then we could start cleaning up.
‘That was kind of the only advice we were really given.
‘What they used to throw the oil on the house is like left on our window. So there’s a bowl.
‘Very soon afterwards we got an email that said – essentially – that there would be no further investigation because there’s no CCTV. And there’s nothing they could do.’
More than a dozen attacks have taken place in London, with more across England
Locals who spoke to MailOnline were unsure why specific properties had been targeted
The homeowner added: ‘We went on to speak to neighbours to see if they had any footage.
‘Bizarrely there’s a gate right by our house, and someone has a camera that faces towards their car for security purposes, and they were they were going to look at that and kind of see if there was footage there for them.
‘We went back to the police and asked why the investigation was closed due to lack of evidence. Because again they had left materials by our house.
‘They had also put a note through our door saying that the bed-and-breakfast was a brothel and it also had a number on it.
‘There’s a caravan over the road and on some of the walls further down the road someone had spray-painted exactly the same message.
‘From our point of view, we can’t understand the lack of evidence, because there’s loads of things you can come and collect. It’s really disappointing.
Asked about the bed-and-breakfast that was the main target of the attack, he said: ‘I can’t say anything about the people that live there. But we feel very safe in the area that we live in.
‘If you look at the property it’s on rental stuff. We’ve never had any problems. It’s not noisy. We’ve never had an issue with people going back and forth.
‘It was a surprise. I guess no one knows why apart from the people that did it.
‘I don’t know the logic behind it. It’s just all really confusing. I don’t think these attacks do anything to remedy the situation. In our opinion it is just very random.
‘I don’t understand why multiple properties are being targeted. It is never just one. It’s an assumption that we are complicit in the brothel as we are the houses nearby.’
Another red paint attack that took place in Caversham, a suburb of Reading
This was the second property in the area to be vandalised in this way in three months
The Met Police told MailOnline that no arrests have been made so far in connection with any of the attacks.
A spokesman for the force said: ‘We are aware of a number of incidents whereby addresses in the Leytonstone area have been criminally damaged with red paint in the last month.
‘These incidents are being investigated by the local Safer Neighbourhoods Team to ensure all investigative leads are explored and support is provided to the victims of these incidents.
‘At this stage there has been no arrest and enquiries into the circumstances continue.’
A number of other paint attacks on suspected brothels have also been reported across other parts of the UK in the past year.
In Reading, a building was targeted overnight with red and white paint in March 2024.
Shocking photos show two large smears of red and black paint on the front of the block of flats with the word ‘brothel’ written three times on the side.
A telephone number was also written on the side of the dark grey building in black paint.
Moreover, in December 2023, an Asian massage parlour was attacked just a few streets away from the block of flats in the Berkshire town.
The word brothel was scrawled on the side of the building three times.
The building in Caversham was targeted overnight with the windows and doors also covered in paint
Furthermore, two apartment blocks in Bradford city centre were vandalised with red paint and the words ‘brothel’ or ‘borthel’ at the end of last year.
The incidents happened more than a month apart, at the addresses on Stone Street and Rawson Place – which are within walking distance of each other.
Local Andrew Mitchell told the BBC: ‘We don’t really know what these people are getting at.
‘Whether they’re claiming there’s a brothel in the place or a ”borthel”, as they’re calling it.
‘We’ve looked into this and had the police go in there and they claim that they’ve not found anything.’
West Yorkshire Police told MailOnline that while two men had been seen on CCTV – no arrests have been made yet in connection to either incident.
A West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman previously said: ‘No suspect has been identified in the Stonegate House incident.
‘There is nothing to suggest a link between that incident in Stone Street from September and the one in Rawson Place.
‘There is an ongoing investigation and two males, dressed in black clothing, have been seen on CCTV.’
MailOnline has contacted the force for an updated statement.