A GROUP of pensioners have told how they lay panic-stricken in their beds listening to vandals destroy property at their home.

A prize-winning garden was devastated and windows smashed in the latest of a string of mindless attacks on Latham Court in Shirley, Southamp-ton.

Doris Long, who turned 90 in September, was in the room next to the laundry where windows were smashed with a stolen strimming tool.

"I thought the walls were caving in on me," she said.

The great-grandmother also had pot plants overturned and smashed.

"It upsets you when you look after your garden and someone does something like this.

"If only more police were available to patrol the streets but I know they've got more important things to do," said Doris who worked for the City Council's education department for 26 years.

Owner of the garden Len Amos, 77, won First Prize for Sheltered Accommodation at the Southampton in Bloom Competition last Thursday.

"I'm gutted," said the retired tanker driver. "I spent all summer and a hefty sum of money doing the garden and now it's ruined.

"More needs to be done to stop this kind of thing. They should have CCTV out there."

Latham Court manager Marian Doe fears further raids could threaten lives. She warned: "People just don't feel safe any more and the next time a broken window could frighten someone into a stroke or heart attack."