SHOPPERS will see more police patrols after a week of vandalism and anti-social behaviour on a busy high street.

Pickpocketing and a brick thrown hurled the window of a supermarket were just two of the incidents reported on Brackley Street, in Farnworth.

As the nights get darker and with Halloween and Bonfire Night approaching, police have confirmed that there will be more officers monitoring the area.

From Monday residents should expect to see increased patrols watching for anti-social incidents and criminal damage, a spokesman for GMP confirmed.

Officers were informed of the latest incident on Tuesday night when shoppers at the Brackley Street Asda were left terrified after a brick crashed through the window of the store.

Gemma Hall was at the checkout when the incident happened and said there were families with small children in the shop at the time.

“As I was scanning my shopping I heard a loud bang and glass smashing and I thought someone had dropped a lot of glassware or jars but when I looked up there was a young teenage boy turning and running away,” she said. “There was a large hole in the bottom left corner of the top pane of glass and staff rushing to the area.

“There had been quite a large group of teens meeting up where the trolleys are kept, shouting and swearing.”

She added: “It was quite intimidating. There were families going into the store with young children.”

It was the second vandalism incident in the street in just a few days after shoppers on Monday spotted damage at the Savers health store.

The shutters on the shop were damaged and the front of the store had to be boarded up.

Then, on Tuesday, Farnworth councillor Paul Sanders took to Facebook to warn people of reports of pickpockets working along Brackley Street.

In a post, he said: “A poor lady was targeted today; her purse was taken from her shopping bag. It was a pair working together - the female distracted her with friendly conversation while the man took the lady’s purse when she was not looking.”

He added: “People need to be vigilant and if anything like this does happen they should report it to the police immediately.”

After a spate of problems earlier this year councillors are planning to run a CCTV system in the street.