RACE workers are on "high alert" for any increases in hate crimes following the London bombing atrocities.

They fear that minority communities in York and North Yorkshire may suffer a backlash from the terrible terrorist events of last week.

Rita Sanderson, director of York Racial Equality Network (YREN), said that reports of racist incidents increased as feelings ran high on immigration and asylum issues during the General Election campaign.

She said that some experts were concerned that the pattern would be repeated again, but stressed that no evidence had emerged yet to show this.

Meanwhile, police chiefs have vowed to stamp down on race hate crimes - those offences committed because of prejudices based on the actual or perceived race, colour, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.

New eastern area commander Chief Superintendent Sue Day, said that tackling hate crimes was one of her top priorities.

Chief Inspector Andy Hirst, community safety manager for York and Selby, said robust arrangements were in place to deal with racial harassment.

Mrs Sanderson said that in March there were three alleged race hate crimes reported, compared to 22 in April and ten in May.

"Certainly in terms of YREN, monitoring of cases of discrimination, racial harassment and victimisation in April were up.

"We put this down to the media coverage before the elections in May of negative information about asylum seekers. Communities got reprisals because of that," she said.

"In terms of last Thursday, it's too early to say whether or not this incident has had a negative impact on race relations. We are very aware and very alert and will be putting in extra time to ensure everyone is dealt with."

She added that in her opinion, hate crime was under-reported and as confidence in reporting hate crime grew, so did the figures.

Police said that third party reporting centres, such as YREN, should help with the reporting and detection of race hate crimes.

The number of crimes in relation to race reported in York in 2001-2 was 101 compared to 85 for 2003-4.

York Racial Equality Network is an independent service that works closely with the York Multi-disciplinary Racial Harassment Strategy, which is made up of YREN, North Yorkshire Police and City of York Council, and also acts as a racial harassment reporting centre.

All three areas of North Yorkshire Police have diversity advisory groups made up of people from different religions, races, sexualities and ages to consult with the police and raise points of concern.

Updated: 10:12 Tuesday, July 12, 2005