Damage caused by burglars at a landmark Bermuda church will “cost a lot more” to repair than the money that was taken.

According to Reverend David Raths, the culprits smashed their way into St Peter’s Church in St George’s over the weekend before raiding the donation boxes. “The repairs will cost us a lot more than the few dollars they took,” he told The Royal Gazette. “There was a lot of damage done; nothing was taken because there was nothing to take.”

He said the burglary was discovered by a woman walking her dog on Saturday morning.

“Once they smashed their way into the church, they smashed their way into the donation boxes.”

Mr Raths said he doesn’t have an estimate for how much the repairs will cost because he is still waiting to hear back from the insurance company.

But he added: “They smashed the old cedar doors and that is going to be very difficult to repair. It’s caused a lot of damage.”

Mr Raths estimated that the doors were at least 170 years old.

“People are disappointed that anyone would break into any church,” he said, adding that there is a general feeling of disappointment that “people would do that”.

Mr Raths also said that had the culprits just asked for money, he could have probably done something to help. “I guess it’s sad that people are reduced to that.”

St Peter’s Church, the oldest surviving Anglican church in continuous use outside of Britain, was one of two churches targeted in the East End on the weekend. A police spokesman said officers were alerted to the incident at 9.20am and less than two hours later they received a report of a burglary at Wellington Baptist Church.

He added, that the perpetrators appear to have left Wellington Baptist Church empty-handed after damaging a suggestion box. Wellington Baptist Church could not be reached for comment.