THE community was left shocked and disgusted after the life-saving piece of equipment was vandalised at Penrith, Sandgate.

On the 25th January, it was found that there was a report of criminal damage to Cumbria Police, on arrival they saw damage to the cabinet of the defibrillator.

The community are in outrage with such an important medical need- now being unavailable to them.

User 1001 said’ When caught, the financial penalty should be for the full replacement of the vandalised one and the same again to donate another one to a place that doesn`t have one.’

Pablo Arfabar, said ‘The way people are nowadays I'm sure there are many others apart from myself who will not be shocked by this.’

Another disgruntled reader, ‘Feb 1973’, commented ‘What is wrong with society these days, there must be CCTV in sand gate. Give them a look in intensive care to heart attack victims and see if it wakes them up, I very much doubt these idiots will have any brain cells to calculate there actions could cost peoples lives. Scum.’

User CroglinUmpire chimed in with his personal heartache, by saying ‘My brother died of a cardiac arrest. If one of these had been close by, maybe he'd be alive today.’

I'm going to go full Matt Cash here and suggest anyone who vandalises these things should be charged with premeditated murder and send to B Wing showers, in Durham, with just a slippery bar of soap.’

Kzzk Zoom said, ‘I have been involved in the fundraising and deployment of around 15 defibs (not locally i'm only a frequent visitor to Cumbria) we have secured insurance for this eventuality for our devices. We have established a bit of a trust where a few residents donate £1 a month or bi monthly’