LONDON -- A church in Cornwall may have to have a bell-free service this Christmas after rampaging squirrels caused hundreds of pounds worth of damage to the ropes in the belfry.
The bushy-tailed vandals chomped through the ropes used to pull the bells in St Erth Parish Church, according to Cornwall's Pirate FM -- most likely as part of a nest-building exercise.
Sorry, the bells were keeping me awake: Church in silence after squirrels eat through the bell ropes : SWNS https://t.co/h6TS2lfRdb— Beebz the Squirrel (@SquirrelBeebz) December 24, 2015
"I noticed a muffle laying in the floor, and went up the tower to investigate," Verger Peter Pascoe was quoted as saying in the Telegraph. "When I got up there I saw a squirrel darting out the window, it was moving so quick I barely got a look at it."
Apparently repairs are being made, but staff are concerned that the squirrels may come back for more rope-based mischief.
"The bells have been ringing out for hundreds of years, it would be a shame if we weren’t able to ring them any more," said Pascoe. “Animals do get in there, usually birds, but I have never seen a squirrel in there before.
"They are a real menace.”