Teenager arrested after Buxted football club’s defibrillator damaged and stolen

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested after a football club’s defibrillator kit was vandalised on Sunday morning.

Buxted FC put out an appeal on social media after it discovered the broken life-saving equipment.

"Last night at 12:50am, our defibrillator was vandalised," the East Sussex club tweeted.

"It was caught on CCTV so if anyone has any information about who these two people are then please report it to Sussex Police."

The club called the incident "heartbreaking" and said they would need to raise money to get a replacement.

Footage posted on the Buxted FC Twitter account has been viewed more than 150,000 times since it was posted on June 13.

It was retweeted by actor Martin Kemp who called what had happened as "the pits".

"I rarely get upset, angry or surprised by people’s behaviour but this is the pits," he wrote.

"I hope they will be disgusted with themselves when they get caught."

It came after Danish footballer Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest during his side’s Euro 2020 game against Finland on Saturday.

The player had to be resuscitated by “defib”, Denmark’s team doctor, Morten Boesen, said.

Sussex Police has said it is investigating a report of a defibrillator being damaged and stolen at Buxted FC, and has arrested a teenager on suspicion of criminal damage.

It also said it was aware of footage circulating online and asked the public not to post "speculative comments".

Richard Turner, chairman of Buxted FC said the incident was "absolutely disgusting".

"Those things save people’s lives and someone has come and trashed it," he told the PA news agency.

"The whole world saw what happened to Christian Eriksen on Saturday so why would anyone think that’s ok?

"Everyone at the club is a volunteer, we work hard for what we’ve got, but now we’ll have to raise funds to replace it.

"It’s just heartbreaking."

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