Race hate reports up since 7/7 bombs

He said: "The thing about racists is they don't tend to discriminate between blacks, Asians or any ethnic group.

"What may have happened is that they feel they have an excuse to be openly racist because of the current situation."

Jonathan Toy, head of community safety at Southwark council, said he was aware of cases of abuse directly linked to the bombings.

He said: "There have been a number of instances where members of our black and ethnic minority communities have been verbally abused because of the public perception of terrorists."

He added that the "culture shock" of seeing armed cops on the streets could be putting people off going to the police.

He said: "I'm not saying people aren't reporting things to the police but they may be more inclined to go to Victim Support for that type of service."

Police figures showed a small decrease in race crimes in the same period, but with an increase in faith-related crimes from one to six.

Detective Inspector Rachel Bennett, head of Southwark police hate crime unit, said it was important to look at the figures in context.

She said: "Victim Support receives referrals from police and the public, whereas our figures are purely from criminal allegations.

"There has been a noticeable increase in faith hate crimes but the incidents are isolated.