EXTRA staff have been drafted in at a cathedral in a bid to curb hooligans who regularly invade and disrupt Sunday services.

The move comes only months after a series of vandal attacks on Ripon Cathedral, North Yorkshire, which ran up repair bills of £20,000.

Young thugs have even taken up vantage points to throw stones at worshippers and there have been attacks on stained glass windows at the cathedral - a place of worship for more than 1,300 years.

Bursar Nigel Clay blames a hard core of vandals who seem hellbent on causing disruption to services.

Canons' verger Jonathan Rhodes said groups of up to 16 youths had invaded services, helping themselves to prayer candles and shouting obscenities.

But despite constant interruptions, services have continued.

Mr Rhodes, who previously worked at at church in Sunderland, said: "I never expected this sort of thing when I came to Ripon from a high crime-rate city."

In the latest vandal attacks, windows in the cathedral offices were broken by stone-throwing youths.

Mr Clay said: "People are constantly asking why this is happening. Ripon is not an inner city suburb. People don't lock themselves in their homes at 6pm. But in Ripon young people are prepared to go into the House of God and enjoy disrupting services."

Earlier this year, a major service to mark the wartime Home Front was disrupted by invading hooligans.

Some churchgoers on their way to services have come under attack or have been intimidated.

Police are investigating, and Mr Clay said the cathedral authorities regarded the latest incidents as very serious.

Cathedral staff are appealing for information from the public in a bid to beat the vandals, who have even sprayed paint over walls of the cathedral's crypt.

Some members of the congregation are calling for closed-circuit TV to target trouble makers. And efforts to establish a Cathedral Watch - on the lines of Neighbourhood Watch