It took city crews five hours to clean up the damage after someone defaced White Rock’s new rainbow crosswalk overnight.

The incident happened just after midnight on Friday, according to the city. Swastikas and misspelled slurs had been painted on the crossing.

The crosswalk was just unveiled last week, after some persuasion from Ernie Klassen and the White Rock Pride Committee.

Klassen owns a flower shop near the crosswalk and said the vandalism was hurtful.

“When I heard that someone had painted swastikas on there, it just brought back a lot of memories of when I was younger and my parents