These photos show Uitzig Secondary School, in Cape Town, a few years apart (Pictures: Google/Jamie Pyatt News Ltd)

A South African school has completely vanished after thieves removed every single one of its bricks.

Uitzig Secondary School, in Cape Town, has been reduced to just its foundations within six months of it closing in 2019.

People who ransacked the once-proud institution took every single brick, window, roof tile along with all the toilets, electrics, plumbing and blackboards.

They reportedly sold the bricks for 50c (2.5p) each and windows for R100 (£5) each.

Locals predict it was ‘drug addicts who stole the school bit-by-bit so they could sell all the materials for enough money to get a fix’.

The school used to boast a grand entrance and reception area, five classroom blocks and two toilet areas.

But things went downhill after ‘drug gangs took over the area’, a former caretaker said.

The man, who refused to be named for fear of gang reprisals, added: ‘Pupils became scared and there was just constant vandalism. The school became run-down, and, in the end, it was closed down altogether.

Locals said drug gangs ‘destroyed’ the school (Picture: Jamie Pyatt News Ltd/Facebook)

The school became too dangerous for pupils and staff (Picture: Jamie Pyatt News Ltd)

‘I do not joke when I say the day after it was closed, the thieves moved in and stole the school brick-by-brick and window-by-window until it was all gone.

‘There was nothing left except the concrete floors where the buildings used to be and now it is just a derelict open space where bad people hang out.’

Google Earth images from a few years apart show the stark difference in how the school has changed.

Former pupil Lorna Balata-Peters said: ‘My sporting memorabilia was on the walls and that is all gone along with the walls themselves and the roofs and windows and even the bricks’.

Street cleaner John Isaacs, who once attended the school then went on to send his children there, said: ‘We don’t know who stole the school, but drugs destroyed it.’

The Western Cape’s Education Department said the school had to be shut down because of ‘gangsterism and vandalism’.

A spokesperson said: ‘We provided security guards and barbed wire but still the gangs and the vandals would come in and threaten the teachers and even the guards.

‘In the end we were spending so much money on repairs to keep Uitzig going it became pointless and it was draining resources from our other schools.

‘There was so much damage being done by locals to the infrastructure that an engineers’ report stated that it was danger to the pupils and to the teachers.

‘Within a few days of the school shutting its gates and despite the security left behind the community members came in and stole everything that was left.’

Crime is rife across schools in South Africa, with many needing 24-hour security to keep pupils and staff safe.

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Within six months, the South African school was reduced to just its foundations.