Residents of a Somerset village have been left 'shocked and saddened' after heartless vandals wrecked their community orchard.

The damage to the Chedozy community tree orchard was reported by a resident on Saturday night (July 2).

They say vandals snapped the trees off at the base, killing the orchard and the fruit it could have provided.

Residents claim there have been other similar incidents at this site before, making this the third act of vandalism committed against the orchard.

One resident who wishes to remain anonymous said: "I am just really sad; the whole village is saddened and quite shocked because a lot of us spent a lot of time volunteering to plant these areas.

"I just want to know who did this and why; the whole village is in this together – we just want to know why."

The community orchard was started to combat the effects of climate change. A lot of hard work goes into preserving it by dedicated volunteers and village residents.

This orchard was part of the Chedzoy Nature Walk, a project that was made possible by a group of volunteers from the Chedzoy Fair Share Project and funded by Somerset County Council's Climate Emergency Community Fund.

The volunteers aim to use this walk to encourage education through access to nature and they hope to inspire the local community to ‘observe, think, learn, and create change’.

Residents are appealing for help to catch the vandals and they want to encourage people to contact the police if they saw anything suspicious.

If you know any information about this vandalism, contact the police’s non-emergency line on 101.