AFTER a week in which the Tilbury community has been seen at its best in response to the flooding and evacuation of residents from a tower block in the town, shock and anger has been expressed today (Friday, 21 November) after discovery of vandalism to a life-saving defibrillator.

The device, provided by Tilbury Community Forum, was housed in a box at a site on St Chad's Road which was broken into and the machine inside wrecked.

An alert that the machine had gone offline was raised by East of England ambulance Service, which monitors the boxes.

On investigation there was damage to the case and the device inside had been taken out and smashed to bits with pieces in the road and in the frontage of nearby houses.

Chair of the Forum, Craig Austin, said: "I am gobsmacked. These are lifesaving devices for our community. 

"This is mindless vandalism. The people who have done this, you have walked past three or five doorbell cameras. This has been reported to the police.

"We will be looking to find these people. 

"Whoever has done this, I hope and pray you or members of your family do not need this device while we volunteers got out to try and find money to replace it.

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"This is genuinely shocking."

The protective case was ripped from a wall, broken into and discarded

Those sentiments were echoed by Tilbury Riverside ward councillor John Allen who added: "I cannot hardly believe this. It makes me so angry.

"This week we have seen the best of our community, now we see the worst. It is a terrible thing for them to do and all I can say is why? There's no monetary value in what they have done. It's just destruction for the sake of it."