Hate crime offences against Muslims has almost quadrupled in a year, new figures show.

There were 37 Islamaphobic incidents reported in the borough in the 12 months to July, compared to 10 in the previous 12 months - an increase of 270 per cent.

Racist and religious hate crime offences have also soared with 42 more crimes committed during the same period, taking the overall from 365 in July 2014 to 407 in July this year.

The picture in Waltham Forest resembles the outlook across London with a 70 per cent increase in Islamaphobic crime, according to the statistics released by the Metropolitan Police.

There were 816 crimes, compared with 478 in the previous 12 months.

Reported incidents ranged from cyber bullying and harassment to assaults and extreme violence.

Chairman of the Waltham Forest Council of Mosques (WFCOM) Yusuf Hansa, told the Guardian the Noor Ul Islam trust in High Road, Leyton, has been targeted on three occasions in the past three weeks.

A construction banner for the development of a new multi-purpose Mosque building was vandalised with writing.

He said: "Someone wrote on the banner 'Mosque = terror'.

"The Muslim population are trying to live peacefully, we are trying out best.

"Many people do not understand Islam and we believe more needs to be done to educate them.

"Maybe ignorance of religion is fuelling the increase but if we knew why it was escalating, we would tackle it."

Mr Hansa also said he was recently heard from council representatives who tell him "hate crime incidents towards women wearing a niqab happen most near Walthamstow market", but verbal abuse of this kind is "not new" anywhere in the UK.

Tell MAMA, an organisation that monitors Islamaphobic incidents, said around 60 per cent of Islamophobia victims were women.

The Met attributed the overall increase in attacks on the willingness of victims to report crime and "improved methods of recording crime".