VANDALS caused hundreds of pounds of damage by smashing up a bus shelter in Darwen town centre.

John Bolton posted the photograph on Facebook and it attracted 103 comments on the Darwen Then and Now page.

He said: “I took the photograph at 5.30am on Tuesday morning when I was on my way to work.

“I was disgusted that someone had done it and then I just wondered why would they smash it.

“So much as been done to improve the centre of Darwen for everyone and people can go and do this.

“We just need to name and shame them.”

Cllr Roy Davies, who represents Darwen, believes that someone must know the culprits.

He said: “It was probably alcohol-induced as we have a good nightlife in Darwen but you have some people who cannot hold their liquor and end up doing stuff like this.

“It also was as Bank Holiday weekend so some people may have been on the pop and cannot do it.

“This is the kind of thing that stops people wanting to come to town. £1.5m has been spent on trying to encourage people to visit then this happens.

“We are not in a position where you can have a police officer on each street corner waiting for things to happen so we need people to tell us who did it so it does not happen again. This sort of thing doesn’t happen in Darwen apart from up the main road so it is a real shame to see it.

“The good thing is that the glass shatters into small pieces when it breaks but that has to be cleaned up and also must be replaced.

“I would urge anyone who knows what happened to get in touch so the people who did it can pay.”