CHILDREN have been left distraught after being denied the chance to make Father's Day cards by a burglar who stole arts and craft materials from a shed.

The hooded thief broke the padlock off the outhouse and stole £400 worth of paint pots, tubs of PVA glue, glitter, sequins and paintbrushes from Grosvenor Nursery School based at Lord Street and Grosvenor Children's Centre in Lord Street, Kearsley, at 5.30am on Thursday.

It is the fourth time the shed has been targeted in a year and detectives have released CCTV stills in the hope the public will identify the culprit.

Acting headteacher, Susan Pounds said: "This latest break-in has affected our ability to do some really important creative learning with the children for Father's Day, which cannot now take place.

"As well as the cost of replacing the art and crafts items and repairing the damage, the staff and our caretaker and now unable to store any property outside the nursery for fear of further break-ins.

"It is also concerning that offenders are within the nursery grounds around the time that our staff are opening up to clean.

"I do hope that residents can look at the CCTV footage and pass any information they may have to the police."

The burglar was a white man who wore a black hooded tracksuit sweater with a distinctive green emblem on the front and he is believed to be with a second white man in grey hooded tracksuit top.

Detective Inspector Charlotte Cadden of Bolton police said: "The offenders in the CCTV footage look like teenagers and one has a very distinctive black hoodie with a green motif all over the front of it.

"I would urge all parents in the Farnworth area to view the stills and see if they recognise the offenders as their own sons and additionally ask, if they think they know where their sons were at 5.30am this morning?

"Were they out burgling a local nursery?

"A couple of the bigger paint pots were found by staff in bushes at the field at the rear of the nursery, near to the rear of Mather Street."

The previous burglary only happened on May 23 when a man in a dark top with a hood smashed the padlock off four sheds and stole £100 of tools belonging to the centre's caretaker.

Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0161 856 5619.