AN APPEAL has gone out to help hunt down vandals who ripped up a metal sculpture only weeks after it was erected.

The Workers' statues were put up on the roundabout at the end of Haslingden Road in Rawtenstall last month.

Designed by pupils at the nearby Tor View Special School, and built by students at Accrington and Rossendale College, the project was the culmination of several years' work.

But vandals have ripped up and stolen one of the three statues, only to abandon it in nearby Manchester Road, Haslingden.

Peter Sweetmore, of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale CVS, which organised the project, is now appealing for help in putting the statue back up, and catching the thieves.

He said: "There is no way this is the work of kids. The statues are metres high and heavy. The statue stolen was attached to a bobbin', and it has been wrenched out.

"It's sickening people would do such things, they're just mindless vandals, because the statues are of no use to anyone, but they mean an awful lot to others.

"The Tor View pupils who designed the scupltures were thrilled to bits to see them every day on theur way to school, but now they're really upset by what's happened.

"I would ask for anyone who knows who might have done this to report it to the police."

The statue will be taken back to the Clod Lane school to work on repairing it.

Mr Sweetmore said: "We're appealing for any local engineering firms who could help us do the work to get in touch."

Fiona McIlroy, head of art design at Tor View, said: "Everyone here has been left feeling very saddened by what has happened, and so soon after they were put up."