Vandals left a trail of destruction when they tore hundreds of newly-planted flowers from their beds in a late-night rampage.

The blooms were left strewn across Mortimer Street and William Street in Herne Bay, which were littered with clumps of soil on Saturday night.

Pete Revell, 68, who lives in Charles Street, had returned to the town from visiting friends in Whitstable with his wife Jakki when he came across the devastation.

He said: “We saw hundreds of winter pansies had been ripped out and lobbed about on the road.

It was disgraceful as every last one of them had gone – there must have been hundreds and hundreds of them.

They were so recently planted they hadn’t even rooted and some of them had been squashed by passing cars.”

The pair set to work picking up the blooms and put them back in the planters and they were helped by bar staff from The Rose Inn and The Prince of Wales, as well as residents passing by.

Pete said: “We formed a right little community working together to put the everything back in place.”

The incident left Herne Bay in Bloom president Margaret Burns in tears. She said: “It was so distressing to find all our plants ripped out.

"They have been grown in a nursery with care and our members, who are all volunteers, have spent many hours planning the beds and planting them.

“We’d only just put the pansies and violas in the barrel planters on October 6. The vandals even tried to drag the barrels about and they have water reservoirs beneath them so are very heavy. It’s really shocking.”

More than 2,000 colour co-ordinated winter pansies and violas were included in the display, and the incident followed on from 40 viola plants being torn from one of the flower carts at the junction of Bank Street soon after planting on October 6.

In total 15 barrel planters were vandalised in the incident that happened around 11.30pm.

Mrs Burns added: “Although the plants have been put back they will never have the same impact as we intended.”

Gerald McCarthy of the Herne Bay promo team said: “We are really saddened to see the damage that has been caused to the plants.

"It has taken hundreds of man hours to put the display together and all by volunteers who just want to brighten up the town. It’s heartbreaking and mindless vandalism and we have been absolutely sickened by it.”