HIROSHIMA, June 5 Kyodo - About 10,000 paper cranes placed before a monument for the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II were set on fire and burned early Saturday morning, police said.

The stone monument, located in Ebayama Park, depicts a mother holding her child with the A-Bomb Dome in the background. Two metal pillars on both sides of the 3-meter-by-1.5-meter monument are used to hang paper cranes. A string of paper cranes on one of the pillars was burned, police said.

Nearby shrubs also caught fire, they added.

Ebayama Park is located 4 kilometers south of the hypocenter and according to the inscription on the monument, many atomic bomb victims died near the park.

Nearby residents say wooden signs have been set on fire and lamps destroyed at the park this year.

Last August, police arrested a student at Kwansei Gakuin University in Hyogo on suspicion of torching 140,000 paper cranes placed in front of the Children's Peace Monument at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park. ==Kyodo