Heartless vandals nearly ruined a Halloween pumpkin trail for children at a Carlisle nursery.

Discovery Childcare, based in the Kingmoor Park business estate, had organised the trail for the youngsters and their parents as part of their festivities in the nearby nature reserve – only to find some of the specially-carved pumpkins had been “smashed to pieces” within hours of putting them out on Wednesday.

The pumpkins were donated by the owners of the business park and had only been put out that morning.

Undaunted, however, they’ve vowed to send another batch – with a kind-hearted volunteer working into the night carving positive messages on them to inspire the children.

Lauren Carr, owner/manager of the nursery, said: “We are not going to let this dampen our spirits.

“We have a Halloween party every year but obviously this year we had to do something different.

“We asked the various businesses in the park if they would like to donate something and the owners of the park gave the pumpkins – the carvings were lovely but then they were vandalised.”

The new batch has been carved with messages like “be safe, be kind” and Carlisle’s famous motto “be just and fear not."

Neil McIntyre, managing director of Kingmoor Park, said: “The pumpkin trail was for the children at Discovery Childcare and other families to enjoy.

“We felt that this offered a safe way for the community to celebrate Halloween this year and are deeply saddened by what has happened. We are determined for the trail to go on and will be putting the pumpkins back out in Kingmoor North Nature reserve.”