RESIDENTS' lives on a Worcester estate are being made a misery by teenage thugs.

Heartless hooligans in Dines Green have broken windows, slashed car tyres, hurled tins of soup, and used a hedgehog as a football.

An 82-year-old woman was left shaken but uninjured when a boy, around the age of 11 catapulted an unknown missile at her head.

Councillor Margaret Layland, whose ward covers Dines Green, said the vandalism had only taken place over the last three weeks.

She said 16 smashed windows at The Green Centre, Gresham Road, were replaced last Wednesday yet had been smashed again by Sunday.

"The windows are all boarded up again, and if someone comes here for the first time and sees vandalism it gives a bad impression," she said.

"It's really knocking the estate back down to how it was a few years ago.

"An 82-year-old woman was outside the Co-op when she was catapulted by a mystery object on the head. It resulted in quite a scare for her."

A resident brought a dead hedgehog to Coun Layland after it had been kicked around by youngsters.

"They had been using it for a football. We don't know if that killed it or if it was dead in the first place," she said.

Coun Layland said three residents told her how youngsters were recently throwing cans of soup into the Co-op, on Gresham Road.

A phone box by DG Pharmacy had been vandalised, all four tyres of a car had been slashed on Gresham Road last week, the windscreens of two cars on the estate were smashed last Thursday and windows in two separate houses also smashed.

She said the culprits ages seemed to range from 10 to 18.

"Ideally you could do with someone watching CCTV all the time.

"The police are gathering evidence with a view to take action."

Beat manager for Dines Green PC Craig Prewer said he was going to The Green Centre today to see what damage had been caused.

"I'm going to look at CCTV tapes there," he said.

"Other officers have already been there and say the culprits should be on video tape."