Residents of an apartment bloc in Montreal, Canada, have been left horrified after their cars were targeted in a vicious anti-Semitic attack by vandals Monday night.

After being woken up at 10 p.m. by the fire alarm, one witnesses told CJAD News how she went down to the garage, and was confronted by a shocking scene.

"I saw something on the hood of my car that looked like a rope or something," said Sandra, who declined to give her last name out of fear for her safety. "As I got closer I started seeing all the other cars had red swastikas painted on them."

Sandra's car's windshield had been smashed as well, and a pickaxe lay strewn in front of the vehicle.

But that wasn't the worst of it: the unidentified vandals also left individual notes threatening to murder residents on the cars targeted - along with a single bullet for each. 

"There were envelopes on all the cars and inside there was a bullet with a note that said one of these will be in your head," said Daniel, whose car was also vandalized and who similarly declined to provide his last name.

"You just don't know how to react because you're never faced with this and you hope never to be faced with this, it's a hate crime," he added.

Police have opened an investigation into the incident, which they are treating as a hate crime.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 514-393-1133.

The particularly threatening nature of the attack has left Jewish community leaders concerned.

"This is more than just some teenager running around spray painting this is a racial, hate motivated type of crime, Harvey Levine of the Bnai Brith told CJAD News. "These incidents have to be taken more seriously and when the culprits are apprehended they need to be charged with hate crimes."