A colony of protected newts in a park pond may have been wiped out by two schoolgirls.

They are suspected of taking 28 of the 30 from the Rotunda pond in Preston Park in Brighton, carrying them away in plastic lunch boxes.

The newts had only recently inhabited the pond after work was carried out to make it more hospitable.

They had been laying eggs in the water, much to the delight of wildlife watchers, before their disappearance.

Environmental consultant Helen Fazakerley, 40, of Preston Park Avenue, Brighton, spotted the girls removing the newts on Wednesday evening.

She had been in the park discussing the future of the amphibians with the park manager and a Brighton and Hove City Council environment officer.

Visitors had been seen playing with newts and she was on her way home to collect posters pointing out they were a protected species when she came across the girls clutching boxes containing the newts.

They told her they were about to put the creatures back but when she returned with her posters ten minutes later, they had vanished.

Ms Fazakerley, who works for environmental consultancy Oceans ESU in Lewes, said: "I certainly don't want to demonise the girls but could they bring them back, please?

"They were nice girls. I don't think they meant any malice."

The girls were aged about 13 and both had long dark hair. One was pale and plump with straight hair. The other was "thin, glamorous and animated" with crinkly hair, Ms Fazakerley said.

Ms Fazakerley believes the girls may have been distressed on seeing people manhandling the newts and could have been acting out of kindness.

She said: "On Sunday there were about 30 newts.

"There was no leaf litter in the pond and no plants, so the newts were very visible.

"It was a sunny day and a swarm of children and parents were catching them in hands and nets, tipping them in and out of containers, putting them in cups of milk. Some dead ones had sunk to the bottom.

"If the girls want to do the right thing, they should put as many as possible back so they can breed."

She has alerted schools in the area in the hope the newts will be returned. They are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 from being transported from their habitat.

They normally live in the long grass around the park and go into the water in the spring to lay their eggs.

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: "Urban rangers have been planning to remove these newts to put them in another wildlife-friendly pond in another council-owned park."