It will likely be several days before the Fredericton Public Library reopens to the public.
The downtown building was extensively damaged during a break-in that happened early Monday.
Scott Brown, manager of fleet and building services for the city, said one or more people broke a window to get inside the building.
“They continued to extinguish all the fire extinguishers within the building, which caused a lot of mess, breaking down walls to break down access to areas of the buildings that were locked,” said Brown.
Those responsible also damaged electronics throughout the library and ripped a water fountain off the wall, among other things.
Brown estimates the total damages to be in the range of $50,000 to $100,000 but noted they are still calculating the totals.
There is a bit of good news, however. He said nothing was stolen from the library and no books were damaged during the incident.
Brown expects the damage will be repaired within days but it could take longer for the technology to be replaced.
Meanwhile, police said they continue to review surveillance footage and interview witnesses to identify the person or persons responsible.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Fredericton Police Force at 506-460-2300 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
