Budapest - A home of a Roma family in south-west Hungary was probably the latest target in the spate of attacks on the country's Roma community by unknown assailants, Hungarian police said Wednesday.

The presumed shooting occurred in the small village of Taska before dawn on Tuesday. No one was injured in the attack.

Istvan Horvath, head of the family that lives in the house, told the news agency MTI on Wednesday that a similar incident had occurred some weeks ago, but he had assumed at the time that it was just children playing with air guns.

"A mark found on the house was probably made by a bullet," Lieutenant Laszlo Buzas of the local police headquarters told Hungarian state radio on Wednesday.

Gyula Horvath, a Roma community leader from a neighbouring town, told MTI late Tuesday that he had travelled to the village of Taska shortly after hearing of the attack and spoke to witnesses who claimed the shots were fired from a black car.

The account - of unknown attackers targeting a Roma family home on the edge of a rural settlement before fleeing by car - bears similarities with other attacks in recent months that have left five dead.

"As it cannot be ruled out, the case is being treated as though it were one of the series of armed attacks against gypsies in recent months," Lieutenant Buzas said.

Roma are often referred to as gypsies.

A 100-strong police unit has been assigned to investigate the recent spate of attacks against the homes of Roma in which petrol bombs and guns have been used.

Five members of Hungary's largest, most disadvantaged ethnic minority have been killed since November in three attacks that are thought to be linked.

On Monday, Justice Minister Tibor Draskovics said he has asked the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to help police draw up a profile of the perpetrators. (dpa)