A nursery was forced to close after vandals smashed up the church where it is based.

They stole computers, tablets and other expensive electrical equipment, smashed windows and doors and left the taps running.

Staff at Noah’s Ark pre-school, based at Christ Church, Luton Road, Chatham, turned up to get ready for the children to arrive on Wednesday, but were faced with a scene of devastation.

The wrecking spree meant children had to stay at home this week and also forced a funeral service to be moved.

Manager Catherine Honour said: “At first I thought the cleaner must have been inside, but soon realised the church had been broken into.

“It must have been a team of them and they seemed to know what they were doing.

“It was a real shock first thing and we had ring round all the parents to tell them not to come in as we couldn’t open the nursery.

“Forensics have been and officers are investigating but this has put us out of action for the rest of the week.

“We have 50 children on our books and Ofsted rated us a good nursery. The parents are as devastated as we are that the children cannot come in.

“All our computers have been taken, we got a grant from the Lottery fund to buy them and the computer section had just been finished.

“The thieves took two computers, a laptop, an Apple Mac and seven tablets and two cameras.

“They broke windows and smashed or kicked in all the inner doors in the church, and they were fire doors.

“A funeral was due to start in the church at 11am and had to be moved to another because of the mess.

“The nursery has been based here for the past 20 years and this is the worst break-in the church has ever seen.”

Staff are hoping to be able to get the damage repaired over the next couple of days and hope to reopen on Monday .

Miss Honour added: “We will need to raise funds to be able to replace some of the equipment and we have yet to see what the insurance company can do, but we need help so if anyone can help us get back on our feet or assist with repairs or ideas for fundraising then we’d be happy to hear from them.”

If you can help, call Miss Honour on 07960 444237.

Police are investigating and anyone with information is asked to call 101 quoting crime reference XY/032271/15.