A GANG of deranged gulls are attacking kids, ­stealing food and pooping into pints, a besieged local ­community has claimed.

The feathered fiends have already collapsed a prefab roof, destroying three classrooms — and are forcing almost 500 schoolchildren to eat lunch indoors.

7 Seagulls in Balbriggan town centre Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Locals in one north Dublin town are now taking action against the “persistent, aggressive behaviour” of the birds.

The list of incidents are numerous.

One little girl was attacked while having an ice lolly while local pubs have stopped serving food outdoors.

Another family are worried about their child being set upon by the “fearless and intimidating” creatures if they hand the lad a biscuit.

The streets of the town are “covered with faeces” while the birds have been spotted “hopping onto vacated restaurant tables to drink milk from glasses and take leftovers from plates”.

7 Our man Kieran Dineen on the hunt in Balbriggan Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

A series of letters were written by businesses and residents to the ­Wildlife Licensing Unit of the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht, which were given to us via a Freedom Of Information request.

In response to the local campaign, Balbriggan has been designated a special exclusion zone — the only place in Ireland where it is legal to take nests and eggs away.

The herring gull, greater black-backed gull and the lesser black-backed gull are now a “threat to public safety” — but only in the north Dublin town.

In nearby Skerries, which is outside the exclusion zone, Scoil Realt Na Mara principal Maire Ni Odhran wrote: “In our school for the past couple of years we have a policy that the 480 children must consume their food at break times inside the school and not out in the yard.

7 The birds have no fear of people Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

“Although this deprives the children of fresh air and playtime during breaks, we have to do this because of persistent, aggressive behaviour by the gulls when food is present.

“As long as this risk from the gulls of potentially serious injury to the children persists we will have to continue this restriction of the children’s yard breaks.”

Senator calls for the use of lasers to cull pests Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee RESEARCH in 1980 had established there were about 40 pairs of breeding seagulls in Dublin city, but that number has since increased to more than 20,000, according to Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee.

Addressing the Seanad last month, she said: “Traditionally, seagulls lived at sea and nested on cliffs. Their food source was fish but as fish stocks have diminished over the years they have moved inland.

“A similar study has not been conducted for north Co Dublin but one can only assume that this abnormal increase has been replicated there.”

The Fianna Fail politician, who’s witnessed the problem first-hand, said all options must be considered — even lasers.

She told the Upper House: “Scientists in the UK are developing lasers to deter them from nesting. The lasers do not harm the seagulls, they frighten them and they are forced to return to their traditional breeding and hunting grounds.”

She added: “Seagull droppings contain ten times more bacteria than human waste and, therefore, this is an urgent health and safety issue.”

The school has to put up with “high levels of faecal contaminations” plus “constant and distracting noise levels”.

Meanwhile in 2015 “the gulls ‘attacked’ the flat roof on a prefabricated school facility — comprising three classrooms — and destroyed it, causing it to collapse”.

7 Publican Jimmy Reilly has had to stop serving food in his beer garden because of the gulls Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

At the Milestone in Balbriggan, publican Jimmy Reilly told the Irish Sun on Sunday: “We had the beer garden directly outside but we had to move it because the seagulls were going over and depositing their cack into pints.

“People were coming back in with pints with seagull manure in them.

“We can’t serve food outside. A young child was eating food outside when seagulls attacked her. There is a hygiene issue and they are dangerous . . . they took the sandwich from the child. They are very aggressive.

“At my home, they attacked the back window. And they knocked off the alarm at 5am by pecking at it.

“We moved the beer garden. It is not in as convenient a location but it is away from the nests. We had at least six nests here last year. There are easily up to 30 seagulls here.

7 Complaints from locals about the gulls has led to a government order allowing nests and eggs to be relocated Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

On the exclusion zone, he said: “We should have been told six weeks ago as then we could have done something about the nests.

"There are people who would be very hurt to see dismantling of a nest. We never did interfere with them but they are a total nuisance and a pest.”

In the letter to the Department, Jimmy wrote: “We deployed various ‘proofing measures’ on our premises but these only have a temporary effect. We continue to discourage the birds but these are smart, tough, persistent wild animals — and are now a dangerous, persistent pest by any yardstick.

"It is guaranteed to become even worse as the gulls continue to colonise (fearlessly and un-resisted) closer to people.”

He said the “plague of gulls” had been caused due to “protection by legislation, an absence of predators, no significant resistance permitted from people, and regrettably, sometimes easy pickings food-wise”.

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A wheelchair-bound woman is unable to go outside into the garden due to the birds, the letters show.

A couple wrote: “The gulls are more aggressive than ever before, and there are now too many of them coming too close to us. Our daughter has special needs (with very high dependency) and is wheelchair bound. In the past couple of years we have not been able to leave her out in our garden when the weather is fine because of the swooping and aggression of the gulls.

“The gulls are making colonies too near us and they have no fear of humans anymore.

"They are now dangerous pests, carrying risks of both serious injury and sickness for people.

"Many businesses in the town are experiencing serious difficulties, as are the schools, and people with flat-roofed premises like our own. There are identical problems in Skerries.”

7 A young girl was recently attacked by the gulls Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Eugene Browne, proprietor of a grocery shop on Hampton Street, wrote: “The seagulls have gotten completely out of hand. We have to be extra vigilant taking open food deliveries. Seagulls deposit heavy faecal contamination all over the place and they are all over the town and seem to be in much greater numbers than a few years ago, and they are definitely more bold and aggressive than ever before.

“I have seen a little girl walking along the path outside my shop eating an ice-pop attacked viciously by a swooping gull and quite terrified.

“Our own teenage daughter was attacked by a gull at the top of Grafton Street, near Stephen’s Green. She was eating an ice-cream. The gull scraped the back of her hand and her wrist and gave her a right fright as well.”

Glen Campbell, of Convent Lane Motors, blamed flooding on his garage's roof on “detritus from gulls’ nests” clogging the guttering.

But he was more concerned for his toddler, writing: “We have to watch for the gulls all the time when out in the garden.

"In the past couple of years, we cannot have a cup of tea and a sandwich, and certainly not a barbecue. And we have realised that our child would be in danger if he was sitting up in his buggy with a rusk in his hand.

“The gulls gather at any sign of food and swoop in looking to get it. They are quite fearless and intimidating.

"The thought of this problem doubling up over breeding season is quite disturbing.”

7 Other Irish towns face similar problems Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

Tom Cardiff told of “attacks on people especially children” as well as “serious property damage and extensive faecal contamination directly on and around human living areas and children’s play areas”.

William Duff, of Ashling Cleaners in Balbriggan, wrote they were on his roof “doing God knows what damage”.

He noted: “The streets are covered with faeces and it is impossible to keep the place clean. Food businesses are struggling with this gull problem, both from a cost perspective and with regard to their health and safety obligations.”