VANDALS daubed walls and playground equipment with paint at a school on Portland.

Staff and youngsters at Grove Infants' School, Portland, were devastated after the vandals caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage by taking paint and coating a classroom door and stone wall in handprints.

They also poured the paint into a new wheelbarrow donated to the school and covered an outdoor water container and a giant caterpillar playground toy in dark pink paint.

Police said that a shed had been broken into at the school after the vandals forced a padlock sometime after 5pm on Wednesday.

Headteacher Jane Hurdiss said the youngsters were set to take part in a sponsored skipping event in the part of the garden the vandals targeted to celebrate the new garden being built.

She said: "This is just mindless vandalism. It has left us all very disheartened and upset. The children can't understand why people would want to do such a thing.

"We have had to close off that part of the garden but our skipping event will go ahead."

She said it was going to cost a lot of money to remove the paint from the garden wall, which is made of Portland stone.

Having examined handprints made with paint at the scene, police believe the vandals were teenagers. They ask anyone who has information on the incident to phone them on (01305) 767474.