Thieves smashed the bottom panel of the St Denys window

The cathedral's Sub Dean, the Reverend Canon Paul Denby, has revealed that the church is to fork out thousands of pounds on CCTV systems.

The announcement comes after vandals caused �2,500 worth of damage.

They broke a stained glass window on Sunday to gain access to the cathedral and then forced open a collection box.

Canon Denby said: "It is incredibly sad that we are having to go to these lengths to ensure the security of the cathedral as we already spend �50,000 a year on insurance.

"Unfortunately there is no alternative if we are to protect the heritage of the church.

Insuring Manchester Cathedral costs �50,000 each year

"It's become a common occurrence for children to throw stones at the windows and people often try to break into the collection boxes during the day so we hope the introduction of CCTV cameras will help put a stop to it all."

In the most recent incident, which happened just before 2100 BST, thieves smashed the bottom panel of the St Denys window in the west side of the cathedral, before forcing the lock on a candle votive donation box.

The thieves fled back through the window when the sensors activated the burglar alarm.

Canon Denby said that they took little, if any of the money from the box, but said that the repair work to the window would run into thousands of pounds.

"The window was part of a series of modern stained glass windows," he said.

"This particular one was of St Denys, the cathedral's patron saint, and was commissioned to celebrate the church's links with the Basilica of Saint Sernin in Toulouse."