POLICE today swooped to seal off a Hampshire home which was being used as a drugs den.

Officers obtained a special crack house closure order from Southampton magistrates this morning, allowing them to board up the house in a quiet residential area of West End.

The drug addict residents of the three-bedroom, semi-detached home in Barnsland had already fled by the time police and housing association officials arrived at the property.

The court order was granted after officers told the district judge that in several previous raids on the house they had found scores of syringes and other paraphernalia associated with the use of heroin, cocaine and cannabis.

Neighbours reported being subjected to months of anti-social behaviour from the house's occupants and regular visitors, who would regularly shout abuse at them on trips to buy, sell and take drugs at the property.

Atlantic Housing, which owns the home, is now beginning the long and expensive process of restoring the house, which had been completely stripped of anything saleable, so it can be used by other tenants.