SHOP owners in Malvern are counting the cost after at least six window were smashed by vandals over the past week.

On Tuesday morning (April 30), staff at Woolworths, the Card Gallery on Church Walk, Malvern Library and Splash swimming pool arrived to find large pieces of masonry had been thrown threw their windows.

It follows two similar incidents last Friday (April 26), when windows at St Michael's Hospice Shop and Victoria Cafe, both on Church Street, were smashed.

Two weeks ago, a rock was also thrown through a window at Select World Travel.

Other businesses targeted by vandals are Claremont House Pharmacy and Malvern Sports, on Graham Road, where a massive pane was smashed on April 13.

Several weeks ago, a window at Brays department store on Worcester Road was also broken, with a replacement costing £1,600.

Shopkeepers say the high cost of replacing broken windows is adding to the strain caused by last year's foot and mouth crisis and the attack on the World Trades Centre on September 11.

Lee Harrison, Select World Travel managing director, said: "If this window smashing spree continues, we would have to consider going elsewhere.

"I think the council and the police need to look at this because the town is already suffering enough," he added.

Steve Guest, owner of Malvern Sports, said: "Often people do it in high spirits but they don't realise the costs involved. So we do actively prosecute."

Ten upgraded CCTV cameras are due to be installed all over the town centre in the coming months after Malvern Hills District Council agreed to match Home Office funding of £198,000 for the new system.

Images will be monitored 24 hours a day from a command centre in Pershore.

Although there are already cameras in the town, the new system will enable security officers to get clearer images of culprits.

Malvern's Inspector Neville Sheldrick said police were investigating all the incidents.