"Words can hardly describe what I feel."

So said a war veteran, as she expressed her fury towards the "mindless idiots" who attacked a floral tribute to fallen soldiers.

Margaret Atkinson, the branch secretary of Pickering Royal British Legion, voiced her disgust at vandals who cut the heads off flowers outside the town's War Memorial Hall.

The 86-year-old, who was a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War, was outraged that the incient took place while British soldiers are being killed in the Middle East.

She discovered the damage when she arrived to water the trough filled with pansies and tulips - something she does every day.

"I am extremely angry," she said. "There doesn't seem to be a week that goes by when a service man or woman isn't being flown back from Iraq in a coffin.

"A 19-year-old died last week, while all these mindless idiots can do with their time is destroy a memorial to those who were killed in action."

The trough, which stands outside the Memorial Hall on Potter Hill, was planted by two local residents.

Police are to examine film from a CCTV camera placed on the hall.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to phone North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 247.