POLICE have set DNA traps in a bid to catch burglars who have been targeting empty premises.

The product, called SelectaDNA, is being used at a number of locations including Alma Street Chapel, in Bacup, and Ashley Court in Whitworth.

Alma Street Chapel has caused many problems for local residents as youths have ripped off boards and entered the site to smoke and drink.

Ashley Court is a recently vacated sheltered housing site that has already been the subject of a burglary.

Crime prevention officer, PC Phil Buck, said: “The use of DNA marking and transferable DNA is being increased across the Pennine police division.

“Recently vacated build-ings and those subject to entry by youths causing anti-social behaviour will be proactively targeted by the police using this product.”

SelectaDNA has several useful characteristics to help prevent and detect crime.

The product can be placed within a building or around the outside of a building on lead and other materials a thief may target.

If touched, the DNA transfers on to the skin, clothes or shoes of an offender irrefutably linking them to the crime scene. It does not wash off and offenders won’t even realise they have been tagged with it.

The police have teamed up with the owners of both buildings and the SelectaDNA has been placed around the sites, on pipe work, door frames, window ledges and roofing lead.

Police are also set to install select property marking kits into 160 homes in the Fieldfare estate area of Rossendale, thanks to a grant from the Lancashire Partnership Ag-ainst Crime.