Arsonists have caused around £1,000 of damage at Gyllyngvase beach in Falmouth after setting fire to property belonging to two beachside businesses.

The firebugs broke into the decking area of the Gylly Beach Cafe to steal teak furniture for their fire, as well as burning a custom-made board rack and two advertising signs belonging to stand-up paddleboarding school WESup.

Sean White, the owner of WESup, said: "They have jumped over the barrier and taken the furniture, and burned the lot to the ground.

"The fire would have been quite considerable, because the board racks themselves were quite big.

"The board rack was built to be left outside, to weather the rubbish weather we get.. it was here for three years and last night it reached the end of its life."

He added: "It's annoying for us, we're only a little business. It's £500 for a new board rack. With the signs and furniture it's over £1,000 of damage.

"Without that rack it makes it really hard for us to do what we do because we rely on that for storage, and keeping the beach tidy.

"It seems to have been done with absolutely no regard to the fact that the beach is valuable to all.

I'm pretty angry. I'm feeling shock because since we arrived on the beach seven years ago we have seen a huge decrease in the amount of malicious activity that happens here.

"There used to be barbecues and fires buried in the sand, broken glass and rubbish."

Simon Daw, owner of the Gylly Beach Cafe, said the miscreants had stolen three teak stools to burn, leaving a black scorch mark on the wall of the cafe which had to be scrubbed off the next morning.

He said: "It's very annoying, mindless. I just scratch my head as to why they would want to do something like that.

"It's just mindless criminality."

Mr Daw said the a cleaner at the cafe had seen two young people and had chased them off, but had been unable to catch them.

He added: "They weren't 'youngsters,' 12 or 13, they were old enough to know better."

"I would just appeal to anybody who knows anything to come forward. People might see me as a target, a successful cafe owner, however it's also the damage they do to the beach.

"It soots the sand up and it's for all of our community, it's our recreation space and why should we let people like that get away with destroying it.

"We have had this wooden furniture out there for eight or nine years, and - apart from a couple of bits floating in the water - this is the first time I can remember that it's been destroyed.

A police spokesperson said officers were called at around 5am on Monday, August 8, to reports of "a man and woman burning material on the beach at Gyllyngvase."

They said it is being investigated as "criminal damage to a number of benches," there have been no arrests, and enquiries ongoing.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact police by calling 101 or emailing 101@dc.police.uk, quoting crime reference CR/054569/16