Prime Minister Condemns Attack On US Consulate In Sydney: 'Not The Australian Way'

In what appeared to be a pro-Palestine protest, the U.S. Consulate building in Sydney was defaced with graffiti and windows damaged early Monday morning.

CCTV footage showed a person wearing a hoodie walking with a sledgehammer around the building in the northern suburbs of Australia's largest city at 3 a.m. local time, Reuters reported.

"CCTV has been sourced that shows a person wearing a dark colored hoodie with their face obscured carrying what appears to be a small sledgehammer," a police spokesperson stated.

The front door of the consulate was spray-painted with two inverted red triangles -- a symbol reportedly used by pro-Palestinian activists.

The CCTV visuals showed the unidentified person smashing the building's windows with a sledgehammer, damaging nine glass windows, ABC News reported.

A spokesperson for the U.S. consulate confirmed the attack on the building, but said staff and operations were unaffected.

This was not the first the U.S. consulates in the country were attacked. While the same building was sprayed with graffiti in April, the U.S. consulate in Melbourne was vandalized in May.

Condemning the vandalism, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged people to have a "respectful political debate and discourse" and "turn the heat down," adding that it was "not the Australian way."

Addressing the media, Albanese said, "The Middle East conflict is a difficult issue. It is complex. It certainly needs some nuance and isn't a matter of just sloganeering. Measures such as painting the US Consulate do nothing to advance the cause of those who have committed what is, of course, a crime to damage property."

The Police and forensic officers have been gathering evidence from the site.