A RYDE church has been left without its communion wine after two men walked out with a plastic bag stuffed with six bottles.

All Saints' Church had only a single member of its congregation inside on Saturday who at 2.10pm witnessed as two men entered the building and began searching through cupboards and behind the altar.

Churchwarden, Roi Milburn, said: "There was an elderly woman in the church at the time, the two men ignored her and made their way towards the altar.

"They began looking behind the altar and searching though all of the cupboards and vestibules and strangely even started turning on all the lights.

"In the end they managed to find six bottles of communion wine and put them into a carrier bag and walked out of the building."

CCTV of the theft has been passed on to the Isle of Wight police.