An effigy of a boat containing mannequins of migrants was set alight in the village of Moygashel on Thursday, in an incident condemned by political and religious leaders as racist and threatening.

Authorities in Northern Ireland are investigating a bonfire that featured effigies of migrants in a boat and a banner reading “stop the boats’’ to determine whether it was a hate incident.

Tensions are continuing to smoulder around two controversial loyalist bonfires in Northern Ireland as time ticks down to when they are due to be lit.