Biddulph residents have reacted with anger after a set of flower beds in the town were ruined by "mindless idiots".

Soil and plants were pulled out of the flower beds, which are located at the traffic lights on Park Lane.

The flower beds and many others like it in the town are maintained by the voluntary group Biddulph in Bloom, who work year round to keep the town looking bright and floral with different plants and arrangements.

A post by a local resident on social media showing the damage attracted hundreds of reactions and comments criticising whoever was responsible.

The post was simply captioned: "Mindless idiots. Why?"

One resident replied: "That's really sad because I saw the people planting these on Thursday! How disrespectful!"

Another commented: "All the hard work that goes into making our town look beautiful - this makes me really angry that small minded idiots think it is fun to smash them up, no doubt on their way home from the pub, so disrespectful."

There was a silver lining however, with residents now reporting that the flower beds have already been restored to their original state.

One commented: "All the soil cleared up plants recovered and soil back In planters. Nice lady from Biddulph in Bloom who also helped should have finished replanting them by now."