Locals have been left ‘traumatised’ after a row of houses were daubed with red and black paint in yet another mysterious attack across the country. 

Residents on Lowfield Road in Kilburn, north-west London, woke up yesterday morning to find their walls covered with splashes of paint – which one person likened to ‘a murder scene’.

Graffiti falsely claiming one of the seven affected properties was a brothel also appeared outside multiple homes.

It comes amid a spate of properties across Britain being vandalised and spray-painted with the word ‘brothel’ as part of a series of mysterious nighttime attacks over the last year and a half. 

Back in 2023, houses on Maygrove Road and Iverson Road, in the same NW6 postcode as Lowfield Road, were targeted by paint splashing gangs.

More than a dozen attacks have taken place in London over the past 18 months, with more reported in Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Reading, Huddersfield and Clacton-on-Sea.

Experts have suggested the attacks are being carried out out by gangsters attempting to intimidate rivals running brothels or people in debt to loan sharks.  

The reason for the latest attack, which is said to have happened between 2am and 3am, is unknown.

Residents on Lowfield Road in Kilburn, north-west London , woke up yesterday morning to find their walls covered with splashes of paint

Graffiti reading ‘brothel 21A’ appeared outside multiple homes on Lowfield Road

One neighbour who was outside cleaning the paint off her walls said she had been left ‘traumatised’ by the ordeal – which had left a Magnolia tree she planted following the pandemic covered in red paint.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said: ‘I just don’t want something like this to happen to other people, or myself really.

‘Things like this shouldn’t happen in the first place. It’s sad that people can’t respect each other in London very much.’

Another neighbour said: ‘It’s crazy. Apparently this has been happening around London a lot when people owe money.

‘We scrubbed the words ‘brothel 21A’ on some of the walls’.’

Another neighbour, whose home managed to avoid being splashed by paint, added: ‘They’ve ruined seven houses, and people are going to have to pay for that.

‘We got away with it, luckily, but these guys have it all over.

‘All the articles are saying it’s triads, and Chinese – the people that live there are Asian, and all the articles from all the previous incidents says black and red paint is a triad thing.’

Residents said they had contacted Camden Council following the attack, but said they were told the authority would not be able to help with the clean up.

Since then, workers from a contractor headquartered on the street – Treehab Arboricultural – have been painting over the damage for their neighbours free of charge.

One of the company’s workers said: ‘It doesn’t faze me.

‘I’m here to change it and help, to bring it back, but this is going to happen again in many places.’

Last month, audible CCTV from an attack in Acton, West London, provided the clearest clue yet of who is responsible for the vandalism.

Residents said they had contacted Camden Council following the attack, but said they were told the authority would not be able to help with the clean up

‘Brothel 21A’ is sprayed across the brick wall of a property, as residents rushed to scrub it off

The video, shows a man using a hammer to smash the windows of a property as two associates deface it with pots of paint and motor oil.

CCTV obtained by London Centric for the first time recorded the vandals speaking in Mandarin with accents associated with northern China.

Oliver Chan, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Birmingham, has suggested the attacks were carried out by gangsters attempting to intimidate rivals running brothels or people in debt to loan sharks.

Mr Chan said that ‘red paint splashing’ was a tactic regularly used by loan sharks in Hong Kong and cities in mainland China to remind the owners to pay their debts or as an ‘intimidation act’ against rivals.

‘The use of red paint, instead of other-colour paints, traditionally symbolises anger and impulsion,’ he told The Times.

‘It is used to threaten or to intimidate someone they want to warn, in many instances their debtors, and is common in Chinese societies, especially in the southern part of China and neighbouring countries of major Chinese communities or societies.

‘It is more commonly seen as a threat or warning to those who are in debt to loan sharks, who often operate in an organised criminal network’.

There is no evidence to suggest the people living in the targeted houses are running brothels or are in debt to loan sharks. 

The Metropolitan Police and Camden Council have been contacted for comment.