Several murals along Manayunk trail hit with graffiti

MANAYUNK (WPVI) -- A community is hoping to track down the individual or individuals responsible for defacing a number of murals along a trail in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia.

The murals, located near the Fountain Street steps, have been tagged with graffiti. Some of it is vulgar in nature.

"It's just heartbreaking that people would do something like," said visitor Lorraine Church.

Along the trail, many were stunned by the extensive nature of the damage.

"It's just not a good thing," Church added.

Mural Arts Philadelphia says they were told of the graffiti last week and have tried to clean some of it up.

Officials with organization say members of the several Manayunk community groups have asked that graffiti be left for now so that a plea could be made to the group or person responsible.

"We're hoping that somehow we can figure out who is doing this and make an appeal to them," said Mural Arts Philadelphia Executive Director Jane Golden.

Golden and others are clear: the graffiti isn't art, but a crime.

"Whoever is writing in that towpath is using vulgar language, is defacing a work of art, many works of art and that's different," Golden said.

The damage is estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Many visitors were hopeful that the display of nature will be saved by human nature.

"You're going to have somebody that comes down here and fixes it and even makes it better," said bike rider Daniel Kelly.

Officials have said they have reported the vandalism to police and will be putting a sign up advising the public about their efforts to clean the graffiti up.