SICK yobs have been slammed after burying broken glass in the wood chips of a children's play area.

The boozy youths wrecked benches and bowling greens, damaged tiles on the bowling club's roof, destroyed a section of guttering and left the remains of their bottles out to injure people.

Bournemouth council has now vowed to step up security at the park, while a local ward councillor is calling for floodlights and CCTV to be installed to prevent future attacks.

"We arrived to find two benches smashed to bits and strewn all over the place.

"This is the second time in the last fortnight," said Josie Cutler, secretary of the ladies' section of Redhill Bowling Club.

"They are burying broken glass below the surface of the play area with the wood chips, and putting broken glass in the children's pool.

"They've gouged the pitches, I would imagine with bits of timber, and put great big holes in the bowling green surface. This is getting too much," she added.

The damage, estimated at around £2,000, was discovered as 40 members arrived at the Redhill Avenue club yesterday morning.

The vandals have been condemned by Redhill and Northbourne ward councillors.

Cllr Sue Levell said: "What I can't understand is what possible joy somebody could get from seeing a child cut themselves or injure themselves. What is the matter with these sick people?"

Cllr Roger West said: "There is a need for motion-activated lighting and CCTV at Redhill and I'm going to be calling for the chief executive to sort it out as soon as possible.

"It's appalling that they picked on the paddling pool."

And Cllr Peter Charon said: "I was absolutely shocked and dismayed to hear about these mindless acts of vandalism."

He said the council was determined that the inconvenience to regular park-users would be kept to a minimum, and he added: "I sincerely hope that the perpetrators are caught as soon as possible."

Peter Crompton, parks manager at Bournemouth Borough Council, said: "Following last night's incident we will be stepping up our security patrols in the area, visiting the Redhill site on a regular basis.

"However, the facilities at the park are unaffected and are open to the public as normal."