A CIRCUS boss told today how children abused customers and attacked showmen's caravans when his show came to York's Knavesmire.

Beau Denning said youngsters aged between eight and 14 continued throwing stones at the caravans even when he told them there was a two-month-old baby inside one.

"They just swore and said: "So what! You can't touch us. The police can't touch us," said Mr Denning, general manager of The European Entertainment Corporation, which brought the Cottle and Austen Electric Circus to Knavesmire earlier this month.

He claimed the yobs also abused circus staff and customers, and jumped on customers' parked cars.

He said his company's circuses, which also included the Moscow State and Chinese State, had been coming to Knavesmire for 20 years but never experienced such trouble before.

He said such problems might be anticipated at rougher inner city sites, in for example Liverpool, but not in York.

"We consider York as one of our prime sites... and we hope to keep coming back, but we did find it most embarrassing and off-putting for our customers and staff to hear and see such behaviour from the local kids."

He said a circus would still come to York next year, but he would have to consider measures such as security fencing or security guards to deal with the problems.

Liz Topi, City of York Council's events officer, said: "We're aware that there were some problems involving anti-social behaviour outside the circus.

"We're obviously very concerned about the image of York that this portrays and the impact it may have on attracting other events to the city.

"We will be working with the police and Safer York Partnership to try to prevent any similar problems in the future."

Updated: 10:05 Saturday, October 18, 2003