THE region's famous brick train sculpture has been defaced by vandals.

The landmark, which "steams" out of a turf tunnel on the edge of Darlington, has been covered in spray paint graffiti.

The sculpture, outside Morrisons' Morton Park supermarket, was vandalised last week.

The brick train, which has scooped two important design awards since it was built, in 1997, is to be cleaned by the store's property department.

Morrisons is responsible for the upkeep of the sculpture, which was commissioned by Darlington Borough Council.

A spokeswoman said: "We do take our duty of looking after the train very seriously and to maintains standards so people can enjoy it.

"We will react very promptly and bring it back to condition.

"This is a one-off incident - we do not usually have problems with vandalism."

The train is made up of 181,754 bricks and stands more than seven metres high and 39 metres long.

It was commissioned by the council as part of Darlington's contribution to Visual Arts UK.

A council spokeswoman said: "It is upsetting that the brick train has been vandalised.

"It has been in Darlington for five years and has become a landmark within the town.

"This is the first time that anything of this nature has occurred and hopefully it will be an isolated incident."

In 1998 the sculpture was named as the supreme winner in the Brick Development Association Awards, as well as the winner of the craftmanship and structural brickwork categories.

It was also commended for helping to raise the profile of the town.

A spokesman for Darlington police said it had no reports of vandalism on the sculpture over the weekend.