Residents spent the early hours of Saturday morning scouring the alleyways of a Falmouth estate for a group of youths who could have been carrying knives.

They were out with torches looking for the youngsters after vandals smashed up a car's windows before teenagers were spotted disappearing through nearby gardens.

Mark Peters was awoken at around 3.30am on Saturday morning by screaming, shouting and smashing noises coming from outside his home in Windsor Court, and looked into his back garden to see "a couple of youngsters hot footing it over the fence" and up an alleyway.

He went out of his door, in his dressing gown, and found the windscreen and two side windows of his car had been smashed.

He said: "I was pretty horrified. there was nothing taken, it was just pure, wanton vandalism.

"It wasn't what you want to see at 3.30am, there was just no reason for it. I'm disgusted, really."

Mark said the noise woke most of his estate, and a lot of the men started searching with torches, going up and down alleyways trying to "flush out" the youngsters.

He said: "There was a lot of noise, somebody shouting 'they've got a knife.' I don't know who."

Within ten to 15 minutes his neighbours had found nine teenagers, eight boys and a girl who he thinks were about 17 or 18years old.

They claimed they were from Newquay, in Falmouth for a concert at Falmouth Rugby Club on Friday night, and had been chased into the area by other youngsters with knives and bottles.

He said: "They said they were climbing over the fence to try and hide in our gardens. To their credit they didn't try to run away, they hung around."

The police arrived at around 4.15am, and took details, but Mark said: "As far as they were concerned there was no way of identifying who smashed my car."

Asked if he believed what the teenagers had told him, he said it "rang true," with one of the youths lifting his shirt to show a mark "like he'd been dragged or stamped on, while the girl gave him her number in case there is any need to follow up.

He added: "I'm inclined to believe what the youngsters were saying."

Mark also questioned why a police dog unit was sent from Camborne rather than local units, and said: "A big shout of thanks to all my neighbours, great community spirit shown by everyone involved getting out of bed and checking their gardens and alleyways for the culprits - even more so when frequent shouts of ‘he’s got a knife' were being heard."

Police confirmed that they had been called at about 3.40pm, and said officers arrived on scene around 20 minutes later.

A spokesperson said officers "took down details of people and will be following up on this further down the line."

They said the claims of the teenagers being chased by other youths with knives would be looked into during police inquiries.

Anyone with any information can contact police, quoting crime reference CR073737/16, by calling 101 or emailing 101@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk