CAMPAIGNERS calling for an end to violent street crime in Govanhill have staged a street protest.

Residents’ group Let’s Save Govanhill want a crackdown on criminals in the South Side community.

They held a demonstration last night near the scene of a recent attack on a elderly woman.

The group gathered at the corner of Allison Street and Cathcart Road at 4pm hoping to attract the attention of motorists and passersby.

The Evening Times told you this week how a 87-year-old woman was robbed after being targeted as she walked in Holybrook Street on October 26.

It is the latest in a string of robberies which have prompted police to launch a special team of detectives to target the culprits.

The officers will spend at least three months collecting information, intelligence and evidence about the muggers who have been operating in the South Side of Glasgow.

Chief Inspector Graham McInarlin said this week: “I am determined to target and jail those responsible for these deplorable crimes.

“It's my number one priority."

Let's Save Govanhill Secretary Fiona Jordan said: "There is a continuing spiral of decline, deprivation and crime in their neighbourhood.

"The area has been blighted by crime, vermin, rats, bedbugs and lice as well as severe overcrowding causing filth and squalor and rubbish left on the streets and back courts."

In September the group held a protest march calling for their neighbourhood to be made safer.

The march started in Govanhill Park with some of the protesters stopping at Myrtle Park and others being allowed to continue to the police station.

An online petition calling on Police Scotland to make the streets of Govanhill safer was signed by around 2000 people.