Nine church bells stolen from Dorset workshop

Nine church bells worth thousands of pounds have been stolen from a business in Dorset.

The bells, weighing between 35kg and 456kg (77lbs and 1,005lbs), were taken from a workshop in St Swithun's Road, Bridport, overnight on Monday.

The raiders entered through a window and used a forklift truck to transfer the bells into a vehicle.

Police said the nine bells were worth between £250 and £3,000 each and had important historical value.

Pc Chris Burt, of Bridport police, said: "These bells... will clearly be very costly to replace. [They] are incredibly heavy and it would have taken quite some time to remove each one from the premises.

"I suspect that the offenders may have created a fair amount of noise while moving them with the forklift truck."