There is a real sense of anger in the community

Sinn Fein's Marie Cush

St Paul's Principal Margaret McNulty said she was disgusted by the attack.

She said: "No one is suffering except three and four-year-old children.

"It is people from the area who are doing it, so it is their own brothers and sisters that they are doing it to - it just doesn't make sense."

Sinn Fein representative for the Ballymurphy area, Marie Cush, said: "The school has been forced to close today and there is a real sense of anger in the community.

Principal Margaret McNulty: "Disgusted"

"Such attacks must stop and I would call upon everybody within the area to work together to end these attacks upon our community."

The vandals got into the school through the one window which was still waiting to have a shutter fitted.

Building work and improvements have been taking place at the nursery for the past five months.

Classroom burned

About 50 children attend St Paul's.

Vandals also burned a classroom in a derelict primary school next door.

In April, the BBC learned that the bill for vandalism in schools in Northern Ireland reached almost �1m for the last financial year.

By far the largest proportion of the bill was spent on replacing broken glass in smashed windows.

It is estimated the money could have paid for up to 50 teachers, 100 classroom assistants or 700 computers.

Many schools have introduced security measures around their premises to help deter vandals.