The vandals left a pot of chicken nuggets on a stove in Southampton Pre-school after pouring cooking oil and salt over desks, chairs and carpets.

They also scrawled obscene graffiti over the outside walls of the school, which takes children aged three and four.

Headmistress Sylvia Caines discovered the damage when she was called to the Middle Road school on Monday.

Scenes of crime officers reported to school to check for fingerprints.

Mrs. Caines said: "I was alerted by the woman caretaker that some vandalism had taken place in the school.

"The Police were notified immediately and so was the Minister for Education and detectives have now been called in.

"We're absolutely dismayed that this happened.'' Education Minister Jerome Dill added: "This sort of thing really is the worst example of people simply behaving badly.

"It's very discouraging and all we can do is be vigilant, report these incidents to the Police and hope they follow their inquiries through and arrest the culprits.'' Detectives said the intruders smashed windows to get in and glass was strewn around the classroom floor.

A Police spokeswoman said: "We have had incidents of vandalism at certain schools over the years, but there have been no similar cases at this school for a long time. This is being treated as malicious vandalism. It doesn't appear as though there was any intent to steal anything.''