A GANG of teenagers stormed a country bus, stole the emergency hammer, jumped off, then smashed the window of an ornate bus shelter.

The attack happened in Stanhope just after the Crook bus pulled into the market place terminus.

About ten youngsters - four of them girls - jumped on the bus through both the front and the emergency exit doors and ran through the coach.

"They were running riot and swearing," said one of the drivers.

"They appeared to be drunk."

The gang jumped off and swooped on to a second coach - the Upper Dales bus - and one of the yobs snatched the emergency hammer.

The hooligan then smashed the plate glass window of the wrought-iron bus shelter - built recently and costing several thousand pounds.

Youngsters also smashed a metal table and left the wreckage in the market place.

A spokesman for bus company Weardale Motor Services said: "They were not visitors or caravaners. They were local kids.

"They took the emergency hammer from one of our buses." Yesterday, council workmen went to the shelter to assess the damage. A similar bus shelter, at nearby Wolsingham, cost £12,000.

The incident, which happened at about 10pm on Saturday, was the third in a week.

Last Thursday, kids were using a bus as target practice, kicking their footballs against it.

The following day, youngsters brought a ladder into the market place and were climbing it, looking into private homes near Stanhope Castle.

"It's getting worse up here," said a driver. "It's not the holidaymakers or visitors to the Dale, it's the local kids. I think under-age drinking is the problem."

Police are investigating the incident.

Stanhope Parish Council chairman Harry Irwin said: "I hope these young people can be identified.

"They should be made to pay for the damage. The shelter was paid for by grant funding obtained by the county council.

"The parish council spent two years finalising the design. It was very expensive."