Calls for clampdown on swan-eating river bandits from eastern Europe

There are few sights so serene as a swan sailing majestically along the Grand Union Canal.

Except, that is, when it is being chased by a gang of hungry, knife-wielding Eastern Europeans.

Polish and Lithuanian immigrants have been seen trying to drag the 20lb birds away, while the remains of some have been found butchered on the towpath near Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. Hundreds are believed to have disappeared from the area.



Now, just in case the newcomers are unaware of the law protecting swans, members of Luton Angling Club have come up with a sign making it clear that they are not for human consumption.

The custom of feasting on roast swan died out in Britain a century ago and killing wild swans - which officially belong to the Queen - is now punishable by six months in jail and a £5,000 fine.

Club official Joanne Edwards, 44, who patrols the canal regularly, described a number of tense confrontations with Poles and Lithuanians. "Every time I try to explain to them that they can't treat our waters as a larder they just pretend they don't understand."