Vandals have damaged the London tomb of Karl Marx in what the cemetery said Tuesday appeared to be a sustained and targeted attack. A marble plaque with the names of Marx and his family - the monument's oldest and most fragile part - was repeatedly hit with a blunt metal instrument, Ian Dungavell, who runs the cemetery trust, told AFP on Tuesday. The damage was reported to the police on Monday.

"The name of Karl Marx seems to have been particularly singled out, so it wasn't just a random smashing up of a monument - it seems a very targeted attack," said Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, the

charity which runs the graveyard.

German revolutionary philosopher Marx moved to London in 1849 and lived in the British capital for the rest of his life. His theories became the basis for communism. He died on March 14, 1883, aged 64.

The granite slab monument in north London, 12 feet (3.7 metres) tall and topped with a bronze bust of Marx, was funded in 1956 by the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019