Mindless vandals have caused thousands of pounds of damage to a community centre and got away without being seen, despite the building sitting between Sussex’s police headquarters and the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Vandals smashed most of the windows at the Malling Community Centre in Spences Lane, Lewes at about 11.30pm on Friday night. They also broke in through the back door, ransacked the cupboards and broke through other doors and let off fire extinguishers.

They even set fire to a bin close to the building and bosses at the centre said they could have set the entire place on fire.

But despite the devastation left in the well used community facility, and the fact that the police HQ stands about 423 feet away, the vandals got away without being seen.

Now workers at the centre have started the long effort of cleaning up the chaos from Friday night and say they have been left devastated by what has happened.

Liz Allsobrook, chairman of the Malling Community Association, said: “I’m pretty depressed about the whole thing. It’s come as a massive shock as we’ve got so many community groups that use the facility. To most people it’s just a building but to those groups it’s a place they get together and at the moment I’m between furious and devastated by what has happened.

“We’ve had so many windows put through, they’ve broke in the back door, they’ve nicked a fire extinguisher and then thrown back in through the window.

“I have had to break the news to all of the community groups and people who hire the facility this weekend and everyone is shocked as to why anyone would do this.

“We are fortunate to have people who turned up in the early hours of the morning to help secure the building and assess the damage, for which I am very grateful as all who run this building are volunteers.”

Despite the devastation caused during the incident it doesn’t appear like anything was taken.

Police have carried out door to door enquiries and will be reviewing CCTV taken from nearby buildings.

Sussex Police were unable to provide any details of the incident and The Argus was unable to contact Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne before going to press.