WASHINGTON: The New York City police department said on Thursday its hate crime unit was probing antiMuslim threats against mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, and in another incident Representative Max Miller of Ohio alleged he was `run off the road` by a driver with a Palestinian flag.

These marked the latest incidentstoraise concerns about a rise in hate against Americans of Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian heritage since the start of the Gaza conflict in 2023.

A spokesperson said police received reports that on Wednesday, Mamdani, a Democratic state assembly member and mayoral candidate, complained that he `received four phone voicemails, on various dates, making threatening anti-Muslimstatements by an unknown individual`.

There have not been any arrests so far and an investigation remained ongoing, the spokesperson said. The New York Daily News reported a man threatened to blow up Mamdani`s car.

On the other hand, Republican US Representative Max Miller from Ohio alleged on X he was `run off the road` in the city of Rocky River on Thursday, while he and his family were threatened by a person with a Palestinian flag. He said he had filed a police report.

`Today I was run off the road in Rocky River, and the life of me and my family was threatened by a person who proceeded to show a Palestinian flag before taking off,` said Miller, who is Jewish and pro-Israeli.

He labelled the incident as `antisemitic`.-Reuters