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A recently unveiled sculpture honouring George Floyd in New York City has been defaced for a second time.

Grey paint was thrown across the statue on Sunday, police said, just two days after it was set up in Union Square. Clean-up efforts by community volunteers are now underway.

The 6ft (2m) tall bust of Floyd was on display earlier in Brooklyn, where it was vandalised with black paint.

Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

His death incited a wave of global protests over racial justice.

Security footage from around 10:00 local time shows a man holding a skateboard and mixing paint behind the sculpture before getting on his skateboard, splattering it across the face of the statue and riding away.

The statue of Floyd is one of three by the artist Chris Carnabuci now sitting in Union Square.

The other two are of of US Congressman and civil rights champion John Lewis, who died last year, and Breonna Taylor, a woman who was shot and killed in her Louisville home by police in March 2020. These statues were apparently left untouched.

"Vandalism of any sort is not an action that is productive or meaningful," Mr Carnabuci said in a written statement. "Actions like this remind us that we have a long way to go."

But the incident had a silver lining, according to ConfrontArt, the social justice arts organisation that produced the exhibition.

By the time ConfrontArt members arrived to restore the statue on Sunday, community members had already begun "scrubbing and working" to honour the statue, the group said.

"[They] bought supplies out of their own pockets," the organisation's co-founder Andrew Cohen told CNN. "This is inspiring teamwork and support from the community."

The New York Police Department's hate-crime task force has opened an investigation into the incident.