DRUGGED-up vandals who caused £500 of damage to a much-loved primary school yurt have come under fire from parents, teachers and the police.

Ivybridge police put out an appeal for information after the yurt – a type of wooden framed tent originating in Central Asia – in the grounds of the Manor Primary School in Ivybridge was attacked.

According to a spokesman for Devon & Cornwall Police, the lock was forced on the structure’s door, with damage also caused to a table and the yurt’s wooden lattice frame.

Evidence of drinking was found inside by officers, as well as a large quantity of tiny nitrous oxide canisters, ballons and rubber gloves – evidence of abuse of the legal high known as laughing gas or ’nos’.

Ivybridge neighbourhood beat manager PC Martin Perry said police were waiting for the results of forensic tests to come back. There was lots of forensic potential at the scene, he added, and he hoped that results would come back with some names to work on.

How long tests will take depends on what else is currently in the system, but PC Perry said it would normally be ’a few weeks’. He was fairly confident that the culprits would be caught, but did not wish to pre-empt the results.

Manor head Karen Dixon explained that getting the yurt for the school had involved much time and effort, and it had become ’a comfortable, safe and exciting place to spend time and learn’ that was used every day by children, including pupils with special needs and those who receive nurture group support.

Read more in the Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette