SERVICES at St Gregory's church, Bedale, will be disrupted for the second successive Sunday after vandals let off two fire extinguishers in the building.

The church, where thousands of pounds have been spent on a facelift for the millennium, has been closed since the incident involving a water and a powder extinguisher on Thursday afternoon last week.

Services last Sunday, including a special annual one for families who have had funerals in the past year, were held in the nearby Chantry Hall, which will also be the venue this Sunday.

It will take a firm of industrial cleaners between three and four days to remove the widely scattered effects of the powder extinguisher, but it is hoped that the church will be open again in time for Remembrance Sunday on November 12.

The rector, the Rev David Paton-Williams, said he found the incident hurtful and upsetting. Disruption would have been even greater had there been any additional services involving funerals or weddings.

He hoped there would be no lasting damage, but a large part of the church interior had been covered in powder which would have to be carefully cleaned around effigies and wall paintings.

Mr Paton-Williams said yesterday: "Our insurance company has been inundated with claims arising from the floods, but we hope today to get its agreement to go ahead with a quote we have. The situation should be back to normal for Remembrance Sunday.''

A spokesman for Bedale police said they were preparing to interview a number of local young people in connection with the incident.

Eggs were also broken on the path leading to the church and another was smashed behind the high altar inside.

Last week it was reported that there had been vandalism to flowers and vases around graves in the churchyard.

Earlier this year the congregation and the wider community answered a millennium appeal by raising £32,000 towards the £50,000 cost of improvement work at St Gregory's including upgrading internal lighting, floodlighting the tower, cleaning and restoring five ancient effigies and restoring medieval wall paintings rediscovered 74 years ago