Vandals have targeted six primary schools in a week in Aberdeen, destroying newly-planted trees and smashing windows in a trail of destruction.
In the latest incidents, four windows were broken at Quarryhill Primary School in the early hours of yesterday morning, and a burned bin and graffiti were found at Holy Family Roman Catholic School in Summerhill between Tuesday and yesterday.
A window was smashed at the former Waldorf School in Cults on Monday, and four freshly-planted trees were ruined at Greenbrae Primary School between Sunday and Monday.
Between last Thursday and Friday a window was broken at Loirston Primary, while several windows were smashed at Cults Primary between last Wednesday and Thursday.
Chief Inspector Kevin Wallace branded the spate of incidents “unacceptable”, and called for members of the public to share and information.
He said: “Vandalism to public buildings disappoints the whole community and vandalism to schools is particularly unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The cost to repair damage to schools can be significant and can impact on the use of buildings until they are repaired.
“With two weeks left of the school holidays I would remind parents to be aware of what their children are up to and to discuss what is and isn’t acceptable with them.
“We often see an increase in youth annoyance, antisocial behaviour and vandalism during school holidays and we have been patrolling key hot spot areas where these types of offences are known to take place.
“I would ask that if anyone has any information about these incidents to phone us on 101. I can assure the public that each incident will be thoroughly investigated and officers will be using all available resources such as public and private CCTV to identify those responsible.
“Be aware that we will take a robust approach and those found to be responsible will be reported to the relevant authority, be it the Procurator Fiscal or the Youth Justice Management Unit.”