A Russian flag appeared on scaffolding outside Salisbury’s cathedral, nearly a year after a nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy in the English city.
The flag said to measure about 10 meters long and 7 meters deep was spotted by workers early on February 17 and taken down.
John Glen, the city's member of parliament, called it a "stupid stunt" in light of the March 2018 nerve-agent attack on Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury.
“This was a remarkably stupid thing to do and makes light of the huge personal tragedies involved,” said the dean of Salisbury, Nicholas Papadopulos.
Local police said that officers were examining CCTV footage from the area, the BBC reported.
Sergei and Yulia Skripal were discovered collapsed on a bench in Salisbury on March 4.
British authorities have determined that they were poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok developed by the Soviet military.
The Skripals survived after weeks in critical condition, but Dawn Sturgess, a woman who authorities said came in contact with the poison after her boyfriend found a fake perfume bottle containing it, died in July 2018.
British authorities have charged two Russian men identified as agents of Russia's GRU intelligence service with carrying out the poisoning.
Earlier this month, the British-based open-source investigation group Bellingcat identified a third alleged Russian military intelligence officer as a possible suspect in the poisonings.
Moscow has denied it had any involvement in the poisoning, which led to a series of sanctions against Russia by the West and tit-for-tat diplomatic actions.