Foxes may be the culprits at memorial

Damage to a Black Country war memorial blamed on mindless vandals could have been the work of foxes, it has been claimed.

Wooden crosses were found pulled out of the ground, snapped and strewn around by mourners.

The discovery was made just hours after a Remembrance Sunday service last month.

Less than a fortnight later more damage was discovered in the memorial grounds in Walsall Street, with poppy wreaths trampled and tossed about.

Council leaders and Wednesbury councillors condemned the attacks as the work of heartless vandals but police have so far found no witnesses to criminal damage but some residents have claimed it could have been caused by playful wild animals.

Sgt Samantha Jones from Wednesbury police station said: "A couple of my officers went down there and one of the residents told them the area is a playground for foxes," she said.

She added some of the passing residents who saw council workers cleaning up the site may have just assumed the damage had been caused by vandals, but they had not seen any evidence or heard from any witnesses who could say the damage was the work of yobs.

But Wednesbury North councillor Bill Archer said the damage to the crosses was too severe to have been caused by foxes.