Palo Alto police are investigating racist graffiti left on a play structure at Eleanor Pardee Park as a hate crime, the department said.

A passerby found racial epithets directed at Black people written in marker on the playground closest to Center Drive and called police to report the graffiti at 6:38 p.m. on June 30, according to a Palo Alto Police Department press release issued Friday.

Investigators do not know when the incident occurred and there is no suspect information, police said. City staff removed the graffiti.

This isn't the first incident of hateful graffiti found in Palo Alto in recent months. In January, an outdoor sign at El Carmelo Elementary School was vandalized with a racial epithet and in May, someone wrote "KKK" in two boys bathrooms at Ellen Fletcher Middle School. Police said at the time that they were investigating both incidents as hate crimes.

According to police, there is no known connection between the graffiti found at Pardee Park and past cases.

Anyone with information about the Pardee Park vandalism is asked to call the police department's 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via call or text to 650-383-8984.