A councillor has called for alleygates to be installed in a Belfast community after a derelict home was ransacked.
The property in the Ballynafeigh area was targeted and windows were smashed, water taps left running and broken glass was lying everywhere.
The issue had previously been raised by local residents and now SDLP councillor Gary McKeown is calling for the area to be prioritised in future plans for alleygates in the city.
"Clearly someone realised that this house was empty, broke through the back gate and wrecked the place," he said.
"Windows were smashed, water taps left running and broken glass was lying everywhere. The gate was then left wide open, so the back yard and house could've been lethal for children playing in the area if they happened to wander in.
"Local residents had previously been in contact with me as they were concerned that the house was unoccupied, so I had already been liaising with council to raise maintenance issues at the property, but this takes it to a new level. I rang it through to police when I arrived at the scene and the Housing Executive and NI Water secured the site, but the point is that it shouldn't have happened in the first place.
"People need to feel safe in their homes, and the unsecured entries in Ballynafeigh are leaving the area open to vandalism and burglaries.
"This is just the latest in a long line of incidents of homes being broken into in what is a very diverse, quiet and friendly community which has been largely overlooked when previous tranches of alleygate funding were made available.
"So, I am calling for this neighbourhood and others like it in South Belfast to be prioritised in future plans to make them safer and more secure for the people who live here."
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