NURSERIES on Glasgow’s South Side have been broken into and trashed within the space of 24 hours, with ­valuables and keys stolen.

Cardonald Nursery and Rosshall Nursery School, near Paisley Road West, were targets in a series of attacks that took place overnight on September 11. Another nearby nursery is also suspected to have been targeted on the same night.

Maggie McGuire, manager of Cardonald Nursery, found the aftermath of the break in when she arrived to work at 7.30am on Thursday.

Maggie said: “The first thing I saw was glass scattered around the floor, it was everywhere. I thought that one of our light shades or photo frames had smashed at first. I never thought to look at the windows.”

The vandals kicked in two small glass windows in the roof, directly above the main play area of the nursery.

Even after cleaning the area, Maggie expressed how they couldn’t be sure that they had gotten all the glass cleared from the play area and feared that there would be shards left in toys that the children regularly play with.

“I spent the first hour of my shift clearing it up. Parents started coming to the door at eight and I was still sweeping up. We had to check everything and put the kids in the baby room. The glass was everywhere.”

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The door to the nursery’s office was also kicked in, leaving it ajar and keys to the front door of the property were missing. Crime scene investigators examined the scene after a small trail of blood was found in the office which was suspected to have been from the glass shards cutting one of the perpetrators.

Parents were understandably upset by the incident and feared for their children’s safety. Khylie Ramsey has a two-year-old daughter, after having sent her now six-year-old son to Cardonald Nursery for years.

Khylie said: “It’s the safe environment that the staff provide to our children that’s at jeopardy. It’s not fair as the staff are amazing.”

To make matters worse, a group appeared at 5.50pm on Monday as Maggie and a co-worker were leaving for the day, kicking in the boarding that had been temporarily put up to cover the smashed windows.

According to Maggie, the group were all young boys on BMX-type bikes, aged around 15-16. It is not yet known if they also caused the break in and vandalism of the property last week.

Maggie described how the incident has not only shaken parents of the children who attend the nursery, but staff also.

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“There are always two of us in, but a lot of my staff are young girls. It did scare them. I’m just glad it was myself that found the glass and heard them kicking on Monday night.”

Rosshall Nursery also confirmed that a similar incident took place at their building on Cronberry Quadrant, with a break-in occurring and possessions taken on at some point on Thursday night.

Police received reports for both incidents but are not yet treating the break-ins as linked.