KNITTED biblical animals from a Noah's Ark collection that have been enchanting children for more than a decade have been taken from a Dartmouth church.

The disappearance of two zebras and a lion has coincided with dog poo that was discovered in the children's corner at St Saviour's Church shortly before Sunday service.

Now it is feared the toys were given to a dog to play with after one of the zebras was later discovered in Victoria Road with its stuffing ripped out and looking like it had been chewed.

'It's not very pleasant and rather upsetting,' said church warden Wendy Rendle, who discovered the fouling shortly after the church was opened.

'The toys were knitted by Sue Wright, the wife of the previous vicar and a group of ladies and it is first time in 10 to 12 years that they have ever been lost or damaged.

'They are kept on a cupboard in the children's corner of the church, so somebody must have lifted them down. Before that they were in the St Nicholas chapel.'

Mrs Rendle said the person who opened the church on Sunday around 9.15am and came in the door by the children's corner did not see the fouling and believes it happened shortly afterwards.

For more on this story, see this week's Dartmouth Chronicle