A METAL statue to remember the soldiers from conflicts and wars was vandalised on Armistice Day.

Officials from Clayton-le-Woods Parish Council are outraged as the ‘Silent Soldier’ was broken and damaged Sheep Hill Brow on November 11.

Chairman Mark Clifford said: “I am absolutely gobsmacked for all of the days to be done it should not have been today.

“The parish council spent £750 two or three years ago and it looked fantastic.

“Our parish clerk drove past at 11.30am and it was fine yet at 3pm I got a report of it being snapped off.

“It is metal so it would have taken some force to snap it clean off.

“It is disgusting behaviour especially on that day and cannot understand why people would think of actually doing it.”

Sgt Paul Harrison of Chorley Police said: “It's disrespectful and frankly disgusting to vandalise a statue which both remembers and celebrates the fact that people sacrificed their lives for our future. If it wasn't for our heroes we may not be here today

“We will be investigating the incident and anyone with dashcam footage or saw anything then you should email paul.harrison@lancashire.police.uk.”