PARENTS have rallied round after a thief stole children's gardening tools from a nursery along with gazebos used only once for a party.

Seymour Road Nursery in Seymour Road, Astley Bridge, was targeted in the middle of the night by a burglar who was carrying a torch .

Owner and manager Deborah Brabbing said: "I feel gutted because they have stolen from children, but what can you do?

"They don't care as long as they make money from whatever they steal.

"Why would you steal gazebos and gardening equipment?"

The burglar struck at 3.50am on Tuesday by climbing over a fence and taking a padlock off a shed.

He appears to have emptied out a plastic Bag For Life he found inside and used it to carry off child-sized spades, forks, buckets and kneeling pads.

Mrs Brabbing said: "He was rooting about for about half an hour.

"He knew what he was doing and he headed off when it started to get a bit lighter."

Security footage showed the intruder walking off with a packed-up and bagged gazebos - one white and one blue - tucked under each arm and the bag full of the gardening tools designed for little hands.

Mrs Brabbing said: "We had a tea party for the Queen's 90th birthday and that's what the gazebos were bought for.

"In the summer we are having an open day and we were planning to use them again, so we have to buy some more.

"When my daughter, who works with me, found out what happened, she was really upset.

"She put a message on Facebook, the parents were sharing it and saying: 'Oh my god, it's disgusting, how they you steal from children?'

"Some of the parents have messaged us to saw they want to help and replace the kit.

"We said: 'No, we can afford to replace it' and they insisted.

"The parents have been brilliant.

"I rang the police and I'm waiting for them to ring me back."

Mrs Brabbing said the culprit was a man in a blue Adidas jacket with a stripe down the arms and the break-in came came just weeks after someone stole the children's milk cartons that had been delivered early in the morning.