HAMPSHIRE police have launched Operation Tornado in an attempt to nail metal thieves.

The initiative comes after a rise in this kind of crime both nationally and locally. A spate of theft, ranging from lead flashing and copper piping to cast steel drain covers, has highlighted how East Hampshire villages are targeted as fiercely as other regions.

Rail travellers across the region have seen their journeys disrupted after metal cabling was stripped from beside the track and, in more recent weeks, around 20 metres of heavy duty armoured copper cabling was stolen from a sub-station in Alton, and a quantity of copper piping and electrical cable removed from an unoccupied commercial warehouse on a trading estate.

Copper on church roofs has long been a traditional target while Blacknest Golf Club lost a length of copper piping.

For full story, see this week's Liphook Herald.