Museum staff 'devastated' after drawings worth £500,000 destroyed

Museum staff are "devastated" after about 1,700 historic military drawings, including some related to the D-Day landings, were destroyed when a van was stolen and set alight near Edinburgh.

Sketches worth an estimated £500,000 from the Royal Engineers Museum in Kent were inside the silver Ford Transit which was taken from Heron Square in the Deans area of Livingston, West Lothian, at about 23:30 on 19 November.

The van was found in the Ratho area the following day where it had been stripped of parts and set ablaze.

Police Scotland said a man wearing a face covering was seen entering the vehicle and driving east on the A89 towards Newbridge, near Ratho, shortly after it was thought to be stolen.

The force has launched an appeal for information.

Constable Teri McEwan said: "We are conducting extensive inquiries into this incident and officers are working their way through CCTV and visiting nearby properties."

The Royal Engineers Museum in Kent said staff were "devastated" by the destruction of the sketches from World War Two.

Director Rebecca Nash said the collection included technical drawings and plans, as well as drawings related to the design and construction of the D-Day Mulberry harbours, railways and bridging.

The Mulberry harbours were designed to allow the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

She said: "The plans had arrived at a company in Scotland for digitisation when the vehicle they were in was stolen and subsequently set on fire.

"Based on information provided by Scottish police, we understand that the drawings and plans were on the van when it was destroyed."

She added: "We would be extremely pleased to recover any of the items should they have escaped destruction.

"We understand that thankfully no members of public or company staff were injured in the incident. We are also assured that this appears to have been a random act of criminality with no connection to the museum or its collection.

"The security and care of our historic collection remain paramount to our responsibilities as a charity and museum."