A seemingly innocuous British seaside town has spiralled into a hellhole, say locals, with violent attacks and sex offences allegedly "soaring" while businesses crumble before their eyes.

Locals have created a volunteer group called Safeguard Force, which now patrols the street at night. Once a popular seaside town, according to these residents, Bournemouth has long bid farewell to its heyday and is now living in fear of an "invasion" of machete-wielding illegal immigrants.

However, Dorset Police insist the town remains safe, with crime down 3% and anti-social behaviour down 5% since 2024. The locals, desperate to reel in their "wild west" town, include some ex-military and security personnel. They have already raised over £3,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to buy body cameras, stab vests and radios.

"Zombie town" and "UK's Most Dangerous Town" are just a handful of ways the town is being described, while local police deny it. The reputation follows a spate of rapes and murders.

However, anti-racism campaigners have criticised the new patrol group, claiming they will target asylum seekers who are staying in Bournemouth's three migrant hotels: the Roundhouse, Britannia and Chine.

Dorset Police released a statement in August in response to media coverage about Bournemouth:

"Irresponsible and inaccurate headlines which scream the town centre has become 'overrun by feral yobs, sex predators and murders' are wrong, and they only want one thing - your clicks," they said.

"These headlines and articles describing Bournemouth as 'the Wild West', are falsehoods, echoed and perpetuated by social media users trying to build a platform for their own means.

"Our town is not 'plagued by a spate of murders, stabbings and sexual assaults'; this is a wilful misrepresentation to create harm and fear."

The statement added: "hotels being used by the Government to house asylum seekers, hotels have been used in this town since 2014, this is nothing new."

Bournemouth's violent crime rate is higher than the national average. However, according to Dorset Police, "compared to 2021, violent crime, sexual assaults, knife crime and anti-social behaviour are down in Bournemouth town centre".

TV presenter Mark Dolan on TalkTV has posted a series of videos about the "once idyllic" Bournemouth's apparent crisis. One local he interviewed said "the invasion is coming".

One former police officer, Norman Brennan, said "illegal migrants that are in these three hotels have caused absolute havoc throughout the town".

He added: "People regularly tell me that Bournemouth is a shadow of itself and they don't feel safe and they don't enjoy visiting it."

Footage of a huge beach brawl in Bournemouth went viral in July this year. It left two teenagers injured as well as two police officer. Clips captioned: "It's all kicking off on Bournemouth Beach" appear to show crowds of people gathered as police try to deal with the situation.

UK's 'post-apocalyptic' seaside town as locals live in fear of 'machete-wielding gangs' - Daily Star