Idiotic vandals who threw lifebuoys into Salford Quays over the Easter weekend put people’s lives at risk.

Salford City Council has issued the stark warning after most of the life saving devices were pulled from their posts and hurled into the water while children and young people were swimming.

Photos on social media showed the rings floating in the water near the Helly Hansen Watersports Centre.

“These life rings are designed to help people in the water who get into difficulties. You throw them to someone so they can keep their head above water and avoid drowning. If they are not there because some idiot has thrown them into the water for fun someone could die. We can’t make it any clearer than that,” said Councillor David Lancaster, lead member for environment and community safety.

“They need to be readily available in the case of an emergency – that’s the whole point of having these devices. We need people to be sensible. Leave this equipment alone and stop risking lives and wasting council money and time patrolling and replacing lifebuoys which have been used inappropriately.

“If anyone has any information about who was responsible for this vandalism, please share it with us or the police. We will also review CCTV footage from the weekend to see if we can identify the culprits so appropriate action can be taken.”