SEVERAL prominent East Lancashire charities have fallen victim to a heartless thief.

The Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale Council for the Voluntary Service building, also known as the CVS Centre, was broken in to during the early hours of Sunday morning.

Several offices inside the building, including that of the Chief Officer Christine Blythe, were ransacked. Glass windows were also broken and paperwork was thrown all around the centre.

Several more Lancashire-based charities, including cancer support service Cares and the Lancashire Wildlife Trust are also based out of the Yorkshire Street building, and were also targeted during the break-in.

A spokesman said the offices were left in a 'real mess,' but added that luckily, nothing of any real value was taken.

Ms Blythe said: "As charities we don’t have expensive top of the range equipment as all available funding is used to enable us to work with people that require some support to help them move forward in their lives.

"If you feel that you would like to see how we can help you or want to chat about any issues you are facing please do get in touch with us. If CVS aren’t able to directly help, we are connected with lots of organisations who can.’

Anyone with information about the break in is asked to contact the police on 101.