A village in County Durham is outraged after a group of vandals chopped down a Christmas tree that had travelled 1,000 miles from Iceland.

The spruce was planted in the centre of Shotton Colliery ten years ago, costing the city £1,800 but providing a Christmas tree for years to come.

But on Wednesday night, around 10pm, a group of ‘mindless’ vandals chopped it down.

The village is now working to bolt the spruce upright ahead of Christmas Day and to raise money to replace it, but worries the same thing might happen again.

Locals drew comparisons to the chopping down of the Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian’s Wall in 2023, but claim the culprits are ‘too thick’ to have even heard of that incident, which caused national uproar.

Stephen Maitland, chairman of Shotton Colliery residents’ associa

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