Walsall bomb scare: Police investigate 'hate crime' Supt Fraser said: "The force are taking this extremely seriously. Officers are continuing to work hard to establish what the item is and how it got there but the incident is being treated as a hate crime, although the motive for placing the item near to the mosque remains unclear. Mosque spokesman Zia Ul Haq said: "The device was handed in and it looked like small electronic battery with some wires sticking out of it - we didn't think it was anything at first but the more we looked the more we thought it might be something dangerous. We called the police and they reacted very quickly. You don't want to think about it as a hate crime but you have to look at it that way. We're a very peaceful mosque and have an open door policy. It could have been a reaction to what happened in Woolwich but we are keeping our options open until police confirm more about it. People aren't overly scared and we're trying to remain very calm about it. Police forces across the country have increased patrols around mosques and Islamic cultural centres after a number of incidents following the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in a suspected terror attack last month. Firebombs were thrown at a mosque in Grimsby, while an Islamic cultural centre in Muswell Hill, north London, was burnt to the ground in a suspected arson attack.