POLICE are waging war on unruly teenagers who have caused thousands of pounds of damage by shooting out street lights with catapults and BB guns while prowling the streets at night.

The group of up to five 13 to 15 year olds have plunged four streets in Colnbrook into darkness and fears are now growing for the safety of the town’s elderly community.

The council has given up repairing the lights after running up a costly bill to fix them only to find the teens had struck again just days later.

Charles Burke, secretary of the Colnbrook Community Association, said: “The majority of lights are now not working in these streets. It’s pretty difficult to walk at night. It’s particularly not very pleasant for the elderly community in the area. It’s probably been going on for around three months.” Police have sent a plea for help to residents, asking them to name and shame the troublesome teens who are reeking havoc in Drift Way, Rayners Close, Moreland Avenue and Moreland Close.

They say residents have been left feeling vulnerable and raised concerns the streets are open to burglaries and anti-social behaviour.

A letter sent out by the Community Safety Partnership to residents read: “You may have noticed that the street lighting columns in [these streets] are not working. There has been ongoing vandalism to lighting columns in these roads and despite repairs the lanterns continue to get targeted by ball bearings/stones shot by catapults.

“To date this vandalism has resulted in significant repair costs now running into thousands of pounds. Due to the ongoing vandalism and the rising costs the council will not be repairing the columns at the current time.

“We require your help in identifying those who are responsible so that we, in partnership with the police, can take action to prevent such incidents from occurring again.” Anyone with information, should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.