TEENAGE vandals have left a community seething after they ripped open rubbish bags and smashed up furniture.

The group of around five boys and girls, aged around 13 to 14, caused major disruption in the Moorgate Street area of Mill Hill on Wednesday night.

Members of Mill Hill Working Men's Club in Moorgate Street are now extremely frustrated and say problems caused by the youths have been going on for weeks.

The yobs ripped up bin bags and threw rubbish over public grassland which spread on to the car park of the club. They also kicked and smashed up dumped chairs and prams.

Club treasurer Jim Devitt said the club had been trying to get a brick wall built at the rear of the premises for two weeks.

But every time the builders lay bricks, vandals dislodge them in the night.

Jim said: "It's a real problem. We don't know what we can do to stop them.

"There is all this rubbish around, it just looks a mess.

"We have no solution. We have phoned the police but they don't seem interested."

A father-of-one who lives on Moorgate Street, but did not want to be identified, said: "There were lots of screaming kids smashing up the chairs and prams. They have completely trashed the area."

The residents, who believe the troublemakers hang around on the playground near the club, said they rang the police when the incident was happening but never saw any officers.

A spokesman for Blackburn Police said they did attend the incident at 8.30pm, 25 minutes after receiving the initial call.

The spokesman said: "We did attend but on arrival the juveniles had gone.

"If this is an on-going issue and a regular occurrence then we urge residents to report the problem and we will pass it on to the community beat manager for the Mill Hill area PC Richard Sanderson."