POLICE are investigating after eight kittiwake chicks were killed while nesting on the harbour walls in a North Yorkshire seaside town.

Officers in Scarborough say the chicks were all shot between July 21 and July 24.

Police stated in an appeal for information: “Kittiwakes are a protected species and police are very keen to find out who is responsible for these attacks.”

According to the RSPB, Kittiwakes are gentle-looking, medium-sized gulls and their numbers are declining in many areas.

The incident comes as public debate on rising aggression from seagulls – typically larger herring gulls - grows increasingly heated.

David Cameron said recently he wants to have a “big conversation” about what to do about the birds, after a Yorkshire terrier was pecked to death in Newquay, Cornwall.

In April this year, Scarborough Borough Council voted in a range of measures to tackle incidents of “gull muggings” and scavenging, including modifying waste bins and encouraging relocating the town’s urban nesting kittiwakes back to the Castle Headland.

On its website, Scarborough Borough Council also reminds people that gulls are a “natural part of a coastal environment”, stating: “Although they can, at times, be a nuisance, gulls are a natural part of a coastal environment.

"In recent years their overall numbers have declined but at the same time more have begun to nest in towns and villages. Because of this decline they are now listed as being of conservation concern."