Community figureheads have criticised the thieves who made off with a life-saving machine installed in the centre of an Aberdeenshire village.
The public access defibrillator (PAD) was taken from Oldmeldrum Market Square between Wednesday and Thursday last week having only been put in place in March.
It was one of a number of PADs recently installed across Aberdeenshire communities to allow locals to better deal with cardiac arrests.
The machine was partly funded by the Oldmeldrum, Bourtie and Daviot Community Council.
Mid-Formartine councillor, Paul Johnston, hit out at the thieves – labelling the act “crass, utter stupidity”.
He said: “This is a completely senseless act as it is of no value to anyone other than as a piece of life saving equipment.
“It needs to be kept in its recharging box, which is attached to the wall near Oldmeldrum Square. It’s useless otherwise.
“The community raised thousands of pounds for the provision of defibrillators to save lives. This is a huge slap in the face for them and we are all rightly angry at the crass, utter stupidity of the theft.
“If in an emergency this was needed, valuable time would be lost. This is an incredibly serious act.
“I strongly urge everyone who might have information or knows of its whereabouts to help in the return of the device.”
Secretary of the community council, Kaye Cowie, said: “We’re just kind of shocked. It’s a lot of money.
“If it is just kids being silly then we might find it somewhere – we’ve had a good look already. People are very angry that it’s been stolen.”
A police spokeswoman last night confirmed they were investigating the theft.