An athletics coach has condemned vandals who attacked his club's brand new throwing cage.

The £18,000 netted enclosure, used for throwing discus and hammer, was found damaged on Sunday August 7 after being recently installed at Central Park Athletics in Dartford.

The club appealed for information in the wake of the attack posting on Facebook: "We turned up this morning to find this. Did anyone see anything or anyone in the Arena on Saturday from midday onwards?

"Quite a lot of malicious damage has been done around the facility and the brand new throws cage, that so many worked so hard to get, has been broken."

Director Tony Durey later slammed those behind the attack, but said it was fortunate more damage hadn't been done.

"We were fairly lucky, it ended up being a couple of hundred quid's worth of damage

"The throwing cage costs £18,000, but luckily the damage was fairly minimal.

"We're a community athletics club, but we don't get any funding. It was all out of club money and £18,000 is a lot to us.

"They've climbed up the netting and it all collapsed. Once we tensioned the ropes it went back into place but we need to replace some winders.

"In my opinion they were probably just messing around - they were climbing the netting and they fell off.

"The message is 'don't do it'. If you fall off you could kill yourself, it's very dangerous."

Kent Police confirmed officers are investigating criminal damage at Central Park Athletics Club in Cranford Road, Dartford, between 12.30pm on Saturday August 6 and 8.50am on Sunday August 7 2022. They said roofing tiles, fencing and a hammer throwing cage, had reportedly been damaged.

Witnesses or anyone with information is asked to call the appeal line on 01474 366149 quoting crime reference 46/153098/22.

You can also call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 or complete the online form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org