But this time, fire and police officials said they believed that perhaps 40 percent of the fires were started by young vandals or other arsonists.

The caning of a US teenager in Singapore has triggered calls from some US legislators for corporal punishment for young vandals in the United States.

'Get the dartboard down,' crowed the young vandal, 'Bin it.'

Since the other factories in the area were also being plagued by the young vandals, he suggested that the building owners get together to fund an athletic program for the kids.

Graffiti-busting is one of the few ways citizens have found to take the law into their own hands, forming neighborhood groups to hunt down young vandals and report them to the police.

He threw down ferocious dunks, growled at the crowd, left the backboard support violently shaking, as if some young vandal had broken into the gymnasium overnight and hung on the rim with four friends until it bent.

Many blocks have eroded or are pockmarked - from BB's fired at them, Mr. McGowan said, by young vandals and disgruntled veterans.

While early slingshots were most associated with young vandals, they were also capable hunting arms in the hands of a skilled user.

But in the forests and hills, the graveyards of vanished communities remain, a target for deranged young vandals and the politically sick.

One's mind does turn that way nowadays what with so many telephone boxes wrecked and all those other things that these young vandals do.