Police have searched and questioned three people who were found sleeping in a tent on war graves in a Manor Park cemetery.

Two men and a woman were escorted from Woodgrange Park Cemetery in Romford Road this morning after being found camping in an area designated to war heroes.

Cemetery superintendent Wayne Bufton called the police after the rough sleepers were discovered by a dog walker at 9.30am.

Mr Bufton said it was the third time in two weeks that a tent had been removed from the graves.

“It is disrespectful to our war dead.

No-one wants to see this sort of thing,” said Mr Bufton.

The superintendent said that groups of men had been drinking and taking drugs in the cemetery for months.

He said they had even begun to cook eggs using candles on the base of the cemetery’s war memorial.

A spokeswoman for Newham Police said that patrols were being stepped up in the area.