Anti-social behaviour is on the rise in Dundee city centre, Police Scotland has warned.
Officers have recently been dealing with a spike of late night incidents involving out of control youths.
A force spokesman said the behaviour “took a more serious turn” on Sunday night when large bins were set on fire at the rear of stores in Murraygate.
They confirmed CCTV picked up five male youths setting fire to the bin and contents, and other security footage from around the city centre is also now being examined.
Those responsible are all about 14-16 years of age.
One was wearing a black puffer jacket, black tammy and dark bottoms, a second had a grey hooded top with a black gilet, and grey bottoms and was riding a scooter, while a third was wearing grey hooded top and dark bottoms with a white stripe down the leg.
The fourth was wearing all dark clothing including a hooded top and the fifth had a dark hooded top and light bottoms.
Sergeant Chris Grieve, from the City Centre Community Policing Team, said: “Young people misbehaving and causing inconvenience around the city centre is not going to be tolerated, and we are adding extra patrols in the centre during the evening hours.
“Setting fires is incredibly stupid and dangerous, and it is extremely fortunate that no-one was injured or that more property or cars weren’t damaged in this incident.
“Contents of bins cannot be known and could have contained items that were hazardous, or pressurised containers that could explode.”
And he added: “We know that many of these youths are coming to the centre from outlying areas of the city. We would like to ask parents to be aware of where your young ones are, and who they are with.
“And if they came home last night smelling of smoke or accelerant, we want to hear from you.”
If you have any information that could assist police, please call 101 or call CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111. Our reference is incident 3362 of 23rd January.
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