Vandals have smashed a beehive and drowned bees in a wildlife haven and now the bees will live in a cage to stop future attacks.

The Wild Cat Wilderness off Riverview Park, Catford, was broken in to on July 1, July 4, July 5 and July 8.

An attack on July 3 saw one colony of bees destroyed, with all the bees drowned. Other hives were flooded with water. The attackers have been identified.

Wild Cat Wilderness’ project co-ordinator Maria Devereaux said: “I still get emotional now, I was terribly upset. As a beekeeper we have a responsibility to keep them all alive.

“What got me was that they drowned them. They purposefully got water and tried to drown the bees. It’s really malicious and thought out and just plain nasty.

“Each hive has its own personality and we lost one completely. The other two we will be able to re build.

“We are very keen to turn this negative into a positive which is what our fund raiser is all about.

“We are absolutely delighted that the community has rallied behind us and we have smashed our project. We will be able to run a substantial program going forward.”

Local artist and welder Rachel Burnett will build the new bee cage and the community will be able to come up with designs for some of the panels.

After the destruction of the bee hives, an appeal was put up on charity website localgiving.org to raise £2500 for the bees.

The money will be spent on an £850 apiary cage to prevent future attacks, £250 for a new hive and £100 for a new colony of bees.

£400 will go to increasing security on the site and £900 will be used to launch Project Buzz, an initiative to engage local youths in beekeeping.

The appeal is at £2,919 so far, £419 over the initial target, and still has 44 days to go.

Anyone who would like to donate money to the Wild Cat Wilderness should go to: https://localgiving.org/appeal/beeappeal/.