Children as young as five are becoming "lawless" and prey to gangs, it's been claimed.

County councillors are now calling on the police to stop “feral” primary school children being targeted by gangs.

Councillors from Kent County Council asked one of the top police officers in the county about the actions the force is making to protect young people from being exploited.

Cllr Andy Booth (Cons) claims young children from the age of five are becoming “lawless”.

At the scrutiny committee, he said: “We are seeing, particularly in some of the newer larger housing developments, we are getting gangs of children.

“I would describe them as ‘feral children’ who have nothing to do and are becoming lawless.

“We are seeing youngsters at primary school age join these gangs and that should be addressed.

“If you are not catching them early enough you are missing the boat.”

The councillor added children this age are also being sexually exploited and being victims of covert photography of their underwear, through “upskirting” or “downblousing”.

Cllr Trudy Dean (Lib Dem) said: “Little criminals become very big criminals if you don’t stop them being little criminals.

“It’s very difficult to have control over children these days with many of the families involved.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Richards said: “Gangs are a significant priority for Kent Police and for our partners.

“I would describe them as ‘feral children’ who have nothing to do and are becoming lawless" - Cllr Andy Booth

“We are working closely with family and schools, this is a big part of the solution as well as education.

“We are very concerned about knife crime as knives are the top item we collect during out stop and search initiatives.”

He added: “We concerned with how gangs will use violence to reinforce their objectives and the exploitation that they will use both sexual and other forms to get gang members to do what they want.

“There are things such as ‘cuckooing’ where they will take over the homes of vulnerable people and abuse those individuals and use them to facilitate their drug trade and that’s a huge focus for us.

“We are working tirelessly with partners so that we are attacking that in the most effective way possible.”

Gary Cooke, who is the chairman of the children, young people and education cabinet committee, invited councillors and police officers to join an in depth briefing on gang violence on May 24.