A bonfire with a replica mosque placed on top of it has been lit.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the effigy was being treated as a “hate-motivated criminal offence”.

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service confirmed the bonfire had been set alight on Thursday evening.

The bonfire, in Moygashel in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, has featured other controversial displays in the past.

The effigy was placed on top of the pyre on Wednesday evening and the bonfire was due to be lit on Friday.

Police said a 56-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of displaying threatening, abusive or insulting material which is intended to stir up hatred.

The lighting of the bonfire comes after a day of condemnation with Justice Minister Naomi Long describing the effigy as a “nauseating spectacle of hatred” and called on the people who built the bonfire to take it down.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said it was as a “sickening and cowardly act of intimidation”.

In its statement, Moygashel Bonfire Association said the display might “shock, offend or outrage”, but said those involved in making it were exercising their right to freedom of expression.

It is not the first time Moygashel’s annual bonfire has featured a contentious display.

In 2025, an effigy of refugees in a boat was placed on top of the bonfire and was set on fire when the bonfire was lit.

In 2024 a replica of a police car was burnt, while in 2023 a picture of the then Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar and an Irish flag were placed on the bonfire.

Bonfires are lit annually in some unionist areas across Northern Ireland in July to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading season.

The majority are lit on 11 July, known as the Eleventh night.

The Twelfth commemorates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III defeated Catholic King James II.