Vandals have left a distraught landlady ready to close the doors on her pub just five days after opening.

Emma Burns, 36, has taken over the Middle Tap on Maryport's Senhouse Street.

She and partner Mark Hurley spent more than two weeks painting the front and cleaning the pub before they opened on Friday.

On Tuesday morning she discovered that two bricks had been used to smash the front windows of the pub.

"I was absolutely devastated. What a welcome," she said.

Becoming a publican was a new venture for Ms Burns, who is from Flimby but now living over the Middle Tap.

She said: "I am a carer and will continue with that job as well.

"At the moment I would just like to close the doors but that would let the vandals win and I am not prepared to do that."

The former landlord of the Middle Tap, David Riddell, said he handed in his notice to pub owner George Kemp after being burgled.

"My wife did not want to stay in the pub after a break-in," he said.

Ms Burns said she did not believe that the pub was being targeted in any way.

She added: "I have only been open since Friday and, as far as I know, I don't have any enemies."

Pub owner George Kemp said: "Here is someone who has come into town, put so much work into painting and cleaning up the pub and now this happens. It's a disgrace."

The damage has been reported to the police and the couple hopes nearby CCTV has captured the culprits vandalising the pub.