Arnaldo Salinas came to Caernarfon to advise on street crime

Growing concern about late night attacks by youths in Caernarfon - which have left some victims hospitalised - has led to the local people taking unprecedented action in Wales.

On Wednesday, Welsh language BBC programme Taro Naw will reveal how steps are being taken to establish vigilante patrols to deal with the problem.

The programme follows New York Guardian Angel, Arnaldo Salinas, who has been over to advise on how to deal with the anti-social behaviour of the town's youth.

Although Caernarfon has a population of only 9,500, over 500 cases of violent behaviour were reported to the police there last year.

This compares to over 900 in Chester which has a population of over 100,000.

Most of the attacks by teenage gangs happened either in the town centre or on the Maes Barcer housing estate.

'Hard town'

But Arnaldo Salinas, one of the founders of the Guardian Angels movement in New York, said volunteers can take matters into their own hands without breaking the law.

The Angels were set up in the Bronx, New York, in 1979 when a manager of a McDonalds - "sickened and saddened by his city's deterioration" - put together of group of 13 unarmed, multi-racial men to patrol the subways and streets.

With their distinctive red beret emblem, groups have since been set up in cities across the United States and Canada as well as Nottingham and London.

Teenagers in the town say there is nothing for them to do

And in 1998, the CyberAngels was launched - an internet safety programme available to schools and other social groups.

Mr Salinas told Taro Naw that their work has made streets in those communities a safer place and that this is possible in Caernarfon too, a place he describes as a "hard town."

But Chief Inspector Gwion Jones said it was not usually a good thing for people to take the law into their own hands.

He said: "We are always more than happy to accept assistance from people, but there is a danger that a step like this could make things worse rather than better."

He claimed that the incidents of anti-social behaviour had subsided after police set up a Task and Finish squad at the beginning if the year.

North Wales Police also had plain clothed officers in the town.

Some shopkeepers in Caernarfon have criticised the town's CCTV system, saying it is an ineffective surveillance method.

Noel Perkins, owner of Dodrefn Perkins in Caernarfon, said: "The situation is absolutely ridiculous - CCTV isn't effective and the police are never round on the beat," he said.

But Gwynedd community safety officer, Clive James, said it was important to remember CCTV was only one weapon in the war against crime.

"There is a feeling amongst the public that the cameras should sort out all the problems in the town," he said.

"But it will only do so in tandem with other measures - the most important one being that people report crimes to the police."