Thieves who broke into a Padiham factory showed they were in no hurry to leave -- by kicking-off a game of football on the factory floor.

Workers were shocked on Monday morning to find the factory belonging to Turkington's Engineering in Station Road had been completely trashed.

But they were more stunned to find evidence that a game of football had been played among the destruction that took place on Sunday.

A pitch had been marked out, fire extinguishers placed for goalposts and two footballs left behind.

Baffled detectives are now investigating the bizarre break-in but say they have never seen anything like it.

They are pointing the finger at wayward youngsters rather than professional burglars.

But bosses have been left with a catalogue of damage and are now stepping up security.

Tools were thrown about and stolen, windows and lights smashed and the building almost set on fire when a pallet was burned.

The company, which supplies equipment for the food, baking and brewing industries, has its main base on Widow Hill Road, Burnley at the Heasandford Industrial Estate but also owns the Padiham factory.

The large building is virtually empty after the company vacated it but it is still used for storage and is sub-let to tenants to store tools.

Ironically, the company is run by John Turkington -- a director at Burnley Football Club.

A company spokesman said: "They got onto the factory floor and broke into a locked canteen and toilets and smashed lights and everything up. They have got all the tools and scattered them all over.

"They set fire extinguishers up as goalposts and there were a couple of footballs left. They were obviously kids as they had a game of football but they are big enough to smash doors in.

"It's a sight. I would not like to put a figure on the damage. We are totting up prices now. We don't know what they have stolen yet.

"We employ someone to patrol the site and we will be increasing patrols to every hour."

Insp Dave Croll said: "They have got inside the premises and caused a lot of damage in there.

"Part of the vacant area has been used by them to mark out some goalposts and apparently play football. I can't recall anything like that happening before, which makes me think it's more likely youths were involved in this sort of criminal behaviour rather than someone targeting the premises for valuables."