By John McCusker

THE callous actions of two youths who went on a rampage in a graveyard causing mass dstruction has left families affected traumatised. The spree has been described as desecration on a large scale.

Up to a dozen graves were wrecked after a tractor was driven through a cemetery at St Patrick's Church in Cranagh in the early hours of Monday morning.

And as police launched a hunt for those who carried out the attack, it emerged that two local men later admitted responsibility for the damage and offered an apology for their actions.

Thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused after the tractor crashed through the gates of the cemetery before careering over a row of graves, wrecking all in its path. The tractor was later heard taking off at speed from the scene around 5am.

Damage was discovered a few hours later. As word spread, relatives began to arrive at the graveyard to inspect the damage to the family plots.

Up to a dozen graves were wrecked in the incident. Headstones were tossed and broken into pieces, surrounds were smashed and lay strewn around the churchyard and flowers, urns and other mementos lay scattered from grave to grave.

One local, whose family plot was among those damaged, hit out at those responsible.

"It was nothing short of desecration," he said. "How anyone could contemplate driving a large tractor through the gates of a graveyard and cause such devastation is beyond comprehension.

"Relatives have been left distraught and numbed by the attack and cannot understand how it could happen in such a quiet part of the countryside."

It is understood that later in the day two men admitted their part in the incident and were accompanied by a local priest to the scene of the destruction.

Police carried out extensive inquiries in the district, talking to locals in a bid to trace all families affected.

Appealing for information, a PSNI spokesman said, "Police understand that a tractor crashed through the gates of St Patrick's Church and drove over graves some time between 9pm on Sunday and 7am on Monday morning. At the moment, police have no motive and are trying to establish what was behind the incident."