A children's nursery group has had its outdoor play equipment trashed after vandals targeted a community's village hall.Swanton Morley village hall trustee Gina Eames arrived on Thursday morning to find the Swanton Morley Under Fives group's playground in a complete mess with the children's new Wendy house damaged and a climbing frame dismantled and thrown all over the floor.

A children's nursery group has had its outdoor play equipment trashed after vandals targeted a community's village hall.

Swanton Morley village hall trustee Gina Eames arrived on Thursday morning to find the Swanton Morley Under Fives group's playground in a complete mess with the children's new Wendy house damaged and a climbing frame dismantled and thrown all over the floor.

In other areas outside the hall bins had also been pushed over with rubbish strewn everywhere, empty barrels had been rolled out all over the field, and some barbecues were also damaged.

Mrs Eames said: 'We do so much for the village at the hall - why do people want to destroy things? It is soul destroying.'

Lisa Syer, the under fives group supervisor, said the children would have been devastated to have seen what had happened to their play area but luckily they had all had the day off for the Royal Norfolk Show.

She said: The main thing is that we had a wooden Wendy house that was donated by parish council chairman Roger Atterwill. The children had had the Wendy house for 10 days and they loved it.

'But now the bottom has been taken out of it and a brick thrown through it.

'We have a climbing frame too and that was pulled apart and thrown all over the place, and plants the children had planted were also pulled out of the ground.'

A team of volunteers were working to fix as much of the mess as they could.

Mr Atterwill said vandalism was an ongoing problem in the village and called on the parish council, schools, police and other local groups to work together to tackle the issue.

He said: 'I am very disappointed about the vandalism at the village hall.'

A police spokesman said officers were called to the village hall after a resident reported hearing noises coming from the hall at about 11.20pm on Wednesday.

Anybody with information should contact Norfolk Police on 0845 4564567.