A community clean-up crew uncovered a frightening haul of weapons in a Scottish town.
The Helping Hands Hamilton team have spent the past year picking up discarded needles and drug paraphernalia from the town’s streets and parks.
But as these pictures show, the volunteers are now finding hammers and knives.
Now the charity is calling on locals to be extra-vigilant, and report any sightings that are a threat to public safety.
Group leader Sean Boyd told the Hamilton Advertiser: “We started doing the sharps removal back in June 2020.
“Since then me and my partner Letitia have done everything we can to get as much of this sort of stuff off our streets, dog parks and woods. But it isn’t enough.”
Local resident Sean set up the community group with Letitia after reading a Hamilton Advertiser story about a toddler stepping on a used syringe whilst out on a family walk.
Since then, the group have been receiving regular call-outs to dispose of needles, along with other drug paraphernalia carelessly discarded in public spaces all over Hamilton.
Sean added: “People come to me letting me know where they came across these syringes and ask me to remove it, so I do my very best to get out there and get it picked up straight away.
“I’d just like to see Hamilton safer and cleaner for everyone, even if it’s just some extra bins put in certain areas, sharps boxes attached to a lamppost in the hot spots or even some CCTV cameras put up in certain areas.
“I’m not getting anywhere trying to have anything put in place so I’ve just continued removing this junk myself.”
Due to recent discoveries of sharp objects and offensive weapons found in the town, Helping Hands have had to seek advice from local police.
As pictured, a number of knives and hammers, amongst other items had to be handed in to the police station to make sure they didn’t harm any locals coming across them.
Sean added: “We have received some support from the Lanarkshire harm reduction team who issued us
some sharp tubs and tongs and we were shown how to use the equipment properly.
“Their harm reduction team also come to collect our full sharps tubs and replace them with new ones.
“We have been all over Hamilton collecting needles from woods, walkways, shopping centres, in front of schools, at bus stops and it really hasn’t got any better over the year we have been doing this.
“Syringes we find all the time but we have also come across knives, hammers, axes and other weapons; these usually get handed into the Hamilton police station.
“If anyone does come across this kind of waste, I would urge you to contact us at Helping Hands Hamilton or contact South Lanarkshire Council and it will be removed as soon as possible.”
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