Thieves are believed to have tried to steal lifesaving equipment in the centre of town.

The defibrillator in Herne Bay High Street was vandalised last week – the second time it has been targeted in the last three months.

Sally Devere, who raised £1,750 to create the station, found it damaged as she walked past the converted phone box on Saturday night.

“It looks like they may have got disturbed while trying to take it out," she said.

"The cabinet was undone and they’d broken the seal on the defibrillator leaving it hanging out of the cabinet.

“Luckily it was okay, but it’s disheartening because so much hard work went into getting it there and yet someone’s decided to vandalise it.

“It’s senseless. It’s beyond me why someone would find it funny to vandalise it.”

In February, a vandal urinated inside it, ripped its hi-vis jacket to shreds and the case containing the defibrillator was left open.

Ms Devere says she will lobby the local authority to install a CCTV camera close to the converted phone box. Failing that, she says will fit a lock to its door.

“It’s not something we’d want to do because in the minutes and seconds where you could be saving someone’s life, you’d have to enter a pin,” she said.

“You’d have to call the emergency services and they would give you a pin number to to unlock the phone box.

“It’s something we’d have to seriously look at because I can see it being vandalised again or taken.”

Read more: All the latest news from Herne Bay.