VANDALS have targeted a railway museum for the first time in 30 years by spray-painting an entire carriage with graffiti.

Staff at Mangapps Railway Museum, of Southminster Road, Burnham, came into work shocked on Thursday morning to find a carriage that was being restored had been covered in spray paint drawings.

The carriage is owned by friends of the management of the museum, having been there for nearly 20 years, and had only began restoration in the past two months.

Police are investigating the incident, which is believed to have taken place overnight on Wednesday August 23.

John Jolly, manager of the museum, believes that the vandalism was carried out by a gang of people.

He said: “We stumbled across it on Thursday, it was done all in one go as there was no paint on it the day before.

“This is the first time in the 30 years we’ve been here that we’ve been the target of something like this, it’s extremely disappointing.

“No other train or carriage has been affected, for some reason they just wanted to target this particular one.

“Not that I want to give these people any credit, but it’s been rather skilfully done, which means that it was more than likely carried out by a group of people.”

Mr Jolly said the owners of the carriage, who had been storing it at the museum, will now have to pay thousands of pounds to have the paint removed, and does not believe the perpetrators will have been from Burnham.

He said: “The owners have only been restoring it with us for around six weeks, so it’s rather frustrating for this to happen after all this time, it’s going to cost them a lot of money to get it all removed.

“We’ve contacted the police who are investigating, but I’m thinking it’s safe to assume the people who did it are not from around here.

“Someone I know has had trouble with a gang of graffiti artists in the South Woodham Ferrers area. Whether that has anything to do with this remains to be seen.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “Police were called to reports a railway carriage at the Mangapps Railway Museum in Burnham. Logos had been sprayed on the carriage between 8pm on August 23 and 7am on August 24.

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