A head teacher in Bristol has spoken for the first time since vandals ransacked a school's swimming pool, causing £30,000 of damage.

Florence Brown Community School, a special school based in Leinster Avenue, Knowle West, has been targeted twice in 10 days by vandals, who broke into the hydrotherapy pool complex.

Head teacher Peter Evans, who has been at the school for 13 years, says he has never known anything like it.

He said: "We have had break-ins in the past where computers have been stolen, but nothing like this.

"There was nothing on the site worth taking – the damage is nothing more than pointless vandalism.

"Lots of local groups use the hydrotherapy pool – the largest in the South West – so it is a very sad day for both the school and local people."

Vandals broke into the complex, which is currently at the centre of a major renovation project, over the most recent bank holiday weekend and again on May 7.

On the first occasion, the culprits ransacked the complex for anything of value.

They took taps, bathroom fixtures and pipes, breaking light fittings and ceiling tiles as they did so.

The toilets and wash basins were smashed and play equipment was thrown into the pool. Broken glass has fallen into the pool and it will need to be drained.

Canoes usually stored in the complex were found strewn across the rest of the site.

During the second break-in, brand new fire doors were broken, windows around the pool were smashed, an emergency phone was stolen and curtains were ripped down.

Mr Evans said: "The whole community is appalled by this. We are gutted. It would have taken a lot of effort to do this – there is a six-foot school fence and a six-foot metal screen securing the site."

The school, which is run by the city council, is for children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

They use the swimming pool for hydrotherapy treatment, as do adults with disabilities.

Although the pool has been closed in recent months while the school gets a £14.8-million revamp it was being kept intact while other facilities were being built around it.

The work is part of a citywide £100m programme to modernise six city schools under the Government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Builder Skanska is currently on site at the school and the work is scheduled for completion by 2011.

The work includes giving the school a new single-storey building to house the hydrotherapy pool and sports hall.

Mr Evans said: "We had only set aside £5,000 for a cosmetic job on the pool. But now we will need a sum more like £30,000 – and that might have to be taken from somewhere else in the project."

He appealed for anyone with information to contact the police, and said: "The saddest thing is that this is supposed to be a really great time for us, because of this brand new building.

"Now we are just worried that anything new we build here will be ripped apart in the same way."

Anyone with information should contact PC Fuller at Broadbury Road Police Station on 0845 456 7000.