A nursery had its toys smashed after vandals broke into the play area.

Mini Marvels, a nursery in Witham, next to the rugby club in Spa Road, had its outdoor section trashed.

Manager Claire Micallef and her staff spent all day on Monday cleaning the mess.

She said: “I started getting messages on Facebook about 7.30pm on Friday night about travellers arriving.

“On Saturday morning I was told some people had got inside the garden area, so me and my husband got in the car and visited the site.

“We took in some of the play equipment from outside and put it inside the hall.

“We didn’t get over there until 2.30pm on Sunday and what we saw was incredibly upsetting.

“A shed full with tools and a five litre tub of paint was broken into.

“The paint was poured all over the toys and all over the floor, it was everywhere.

“Toys for the little ones were either stolen or so damaged they had to be binned.

“It was upsetting.

“Coming back into the nursery we worked so hard to build and seeing the nursery trashed.

“It was hard.”

Claire added: “We spent Monday cleaning up but we were also worried about our reputation.

“But we were overwhelmed by the community response and people have been amazing.

“People have been knocking down the doors to give us old toys and this is great.”

The nursery is now open as usual. Nobody is understood to have been arrested or suspects identified.