Thousands of pounds worth of damage has been caused five coaches in a public car park in Pembrokeshire in what is being described as "a deplorable act of vandalism".

The vehicles were attacked overnight in Tenby’s North Beach car park where they had been left in readiness for this morning’s school run in south Pembrokeshire.

Four belong to Edwards Coaches, with the other owned by Davies Coaches of Llanelli.

One of the Edwards vehicles had every single window smashed, with the others also on the receiving end of window and door damage.

It is thought that the vandals broke into the coaches through their main doors before setting about the windows with hammers and the vehicles’ own fire extinguishers.

“It is a very serious incident indeed,” said Tony Thomas, the manager of Edwards Coaches, Pembroke Dock.

“I’ve got drivers here who have worked for over 30 years and they are shocked - they said they’ve never seen anything like it.”

The coaches are expected to be off the road for at least a week while the extensive damage is repaired.

The vandalism is known to have taken place either during yesterday (Sunday) evening or the early hours of today, as Mr Thomas checked the car park at 4pm and all was well. The damage was discovered by a colleague at 6am.

“Luckily we had time to find four spare buses and reschedule drivers as there were 200 children needed getting to school on time, and we managed to accomplish this,” he said.

The damaged vehicles are amongst 30 from the Edwards Coaches fleet which operates school transport throughout Pembrokeshire on behalf of Pembrokeshire County Council.

Said council spokesman: “The authority is grateful to Edwards Coaches for not allowing this deplorable act of vandalism to disrupt their school transport duties.”

Police are investigating the incident, and anyone with information is asked to call 101.