HIROSHIMA -- Police have launched an investigation after the engraved stone explanation in front of the Atomic bomb dome here was vandalized with paint.

A passerby found black paint stains on the stone, which measures1 by 2.4 meters, in Hiroshima's Naka-ku shortly before 6 p.m., Sunday, and alerted police.

Officers from the Hiroshima Chuo Police Station rushed to the scene and found two paint marks on the structure.

Another nearby plate, which explains that the dome is listed on UNESCO's World Heritage, was also tainted with paint, officers said.

In December 2001, graffiti was written with charcoal on a wall of the A-bomb dome, one of the most significant structural reminders of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, prompting the installation of a security camera at the dome in October last year. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Oct. 20, 2003)