TODDLERS could have come to serious harm after teenage vandals hammered nails into a kiddies' slide at a Burnley nursery.

No-one was injured, but the thoughtless act was one of a long list of night-time attacks on the playground at Piccadilly day nursery on Piccadilly Road.

Young wreckers have caused untold damage to the £11,000 climbing frame over the past few weeks and now staff are sick and tired.

"It has come to the stage where we are thinking that we should give it to charity before it is burned down," said officer-in-charge Diane Lupton after the latest attack this week.

"They have kicked panels off the top and put nails in at the bottom of the slide. Children could have had their legs ripped open if they had gone down it.

"Vandals have pulled up the plants and bulbs we planted, and they have ripped a hole in the fence. They have caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage."

She said darts had been thrown into the grounds and obscene graffiti scrawled across walls.

"Some of the children can read and we can't let them play where graffiti has been written."

She added: "Some elderly people who live in the street opposite have seen the teenagers riding their bikes, but when they tell them to stop they just get threatened. They feel frightened.

"We have tried putting up stronger fences, but the vandals keep bashing their way through."

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