Thieves have stripped lead flashing from a village church roof, just three years after a similar raid left the parish with a £55,000 bill.

The theft was discovered when a heavy rain fall flooded St Mary's Church, Woodnesborough, and the vicar the Rev Dan Harrison has described the latest crime as a "nuisance and an imposition".

He added: "This is such a disruption and puts lots of people out. It is unsettling and disappointing."

A bill totalling thousands of pounds is expected, just four months after St Mary's Church launched a fund-raising campaign to find £70,000 for repairs to the tower of the Norman structure.

"We arrived to set the church up and found a great pool of water just inside the main door. As soon as you see water like that then you know what has happened.

"The lead flashing must have been easy to cut and roll up, with a couple of thieves on the roof who would throw it down to one or two people down below.

"We have a church appeal going on anyway, so now some of that money may have to be diverted to pay this bill. This is not good.

"It is shame as people have been so generous and can we can't do what we wanted with the appeal money. It is disappointing we now have to raise more."

* For full story see page three of the East Kent Mercury.