A TRIO of suspected burglars accused of trashing a nursery for disabled children were arrested after police followed their footprints in the snow.

Officers said they were able to track down the alleged offenders to a house just 200 yards away after neighbours spotted a break-in at the Stepping Stones Therapy Nursery in Warner Street, Haslingden.

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Staff said they were ‘devastated’ by the raid, which saw £240 stolen and a host of doors and windows smashed.

Police said the thieves scaled a security gate and used two bricks to shatter the front door glass before ransacking an office drawer containing children’s lunch money.

Worker Annette Dearden said the nursery was forced to close to its 16 youngsters pupils in the aftermath of the break-in, which happened between 11.15pm and 11.45pm on Tuesday.

She said: “I turned up for work in the morning and when I opened the door I was in total shock. I set the security alarm off because I didn’t know the alarm company had been in overnight. It was unknown to me that the building had been broken into.

“Straight away I called the police who said they had already been overnight but they were back within minutes. They told me what happened and said they were able to trace the footprints and make arrests.

“There was damage to the front door, the windows, and the carpet where the bricks came through. The door had been forced open and cash was taken from the only drawer in the building that had any.

“We use it as a kind of float, with children’s lunch money, charity collections and coins the kids put in the ‘honesty box’. Everyone is devastated.”

The nursery, which is managed by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said the theft was a blow to its plans to revamp a multi-sensory room.

Witness Dawn McNee, who called police after she saw a man acting suspiciously outside the nursery, said she now hoped to help raise funds to help recoup the money that was stolen.

The mum-of-four said: “I was outside with my husband at about 11.30pm having a cigarette before we went to bed and we saw someone stood in the middle of the road dressed in black.

“There was a bang and the alarm went off and then two people started to run. We phoned the police and they eventually tracked the footprints in the snow.

“I can’t stop thinking about what happened and I can’t stand the thought of the nursery losing all that money.”

Mrs McNee, 28, has set up a Facebook page called ‘Appealing for donations towards Stepping Stones nursery, Haslingden’, and Mrs Dearden said she had been thrilled with the response to the burglary.

She said: “The people of Rossendale have been very good. We have had lots of donations come in already. The damage has been cleared away and we aren’t letting it impact on the service we provide.”

Andrew MacKenzie, a trustee of Stepping Stones Parents’ Association, said it was ‘absolutely disgusting’ that it had been targeted.

He said: “The idea that anybody would break into Stepping Stones to steal money is mind-boggling.

“When my son, Thomas, was there, he was eight months behind in his education because he spent eight months in a neo-natal intensive care unit after being born 15 weeks premature.

“The care and devotion of the staff in his two years there was amazing and I’m sorry to hear about this crime.”

Haslingden councillor Granville Morris said it was more than fortunate the weather helped the police in their investigation.

He said: “Thankfully these people did not realise what they were doing leaving their footprints in the snow and the police were on the ball enough to pick up on the very clear evidence.”

A spokeswoman for Lancashire police said two men, aged 26 and 28, and a 50-year-old woman had been arrested in Haslingden on suspicion of burglary and had been bailed until February 15.

She said: “It is correct that officers followed distinctive footprints in the snow to an address in Haslingden where they seized footwear and made the three arrests.”