Sick thugs burned to death a primary school's pet rabbit and guinea pig before dumping their charred bodies in a children's sandpit.

The "mindless" vandals torched the hutch the animals lived in at St Swithun's Primary School in Grundy Crescent, Kennington.

Teachers who found the grisly scene had to break the news to pupils aged between three and 11.

Headteacher Jill Evans said: "We came back after the weekend and discovered that the pets had been burned to death.

"What has happened is mindless and extremely cruel. The children loved these animals and some of the younger ones can't understand why they are gone.

"We have told the pupils that the animals have died and have sent letters to parents of the older children explaining what has happened.

"The people who did this had clearly been smoking because they left cigarette burns over all our play furniture. This is a complete outrage and we want police to catch whoever did this."

Some of the 290 schoolchildren took turns keeping the pets at home and parents are now rallying round to buy replacements.

Pc John Bearn, of Abingdon police, said: "In all my days in the police I have never come across such spiteful cruelty. The children are devastated. I will be doing all I can to catch these people."

Pc Bearn can be contacted on 01235 555959 and anyone with information who wants to remain anonymous can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Previous news story

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.