A NEW weapon has been unleashed by a store chain on unsuspecting youths and troublemakers...Mozart!

Many Co-op stores in the county are pumping out symphonies and concertos with its soup and carrots in a bid to scare off troublesome youngsters.

Staff have fitted external speakers and are blasting out the great composers, in the hope the stores will simply be too un-cool for teenagers.

Co-op bosses decided to add the new string to their bow in Kent stores after trialling the musical 'torture’ at outlets across the UK.

A spokesman stressed the new initiative wasn’t being introduced just in stores plagued by troublemakers - sometimes the youngsters’ Bach was worse than their bite!

Rob Oade, regional loss prevention manager, said: “It first started when we acquired Alldays a couple of years ago. They had a scheme in one of their stores in Basingstoke that had proved very successful. We decided to introduce it in our stores and it has been very, very successful.

“It is aimed at potential troublemakers. We are not saying they are going to get into trouble, but sometimes there are groups of up to 20 to 30 youths, and it can be intimidating to our customers.”

One Kent store will only play Mozart, but if that is not the youngsters’ forte, or makes them crotchety, they can always pop along to the Sidcup store to sample a little of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake or a seasonal ditty from Vivaldi.

Chris Ball, Bexley’s Community Safety Partnership chair and council leader, said he welcomed any scheme that tackled anti-social behaviour and helped reduce the fear of crime.

He said: “This is a novel way of dispelling the youths and is cost efficient, so I applaud the inventiveness.”