DETECTIVES in Southampton today insisted they are winning the war against burglars despite a "blip" in recent crime figures.

Police blamed the start of the new academic year for causing a sharp rise in the number of break-ins reported across the city in the last week of September and first week of October.

A total of 57 house burglaries were reported within the fortnight - about four a day - but police stressed these could have happened at any time during the long summer break.

Most of the raids were discovered when students returned to their digs for the new term at college or university.

Latest figures show the number of house burglaries across the city has dropped by seven per cent this year, with 546 break-ins reported to police up to the end of last week.

When compared with British cities of a similar size, Southampton comes out in the top five for both reducing and detecting house burglaries.

Today Det Chief Insp Dean Jones, head of Southampton CID, moved to defend his officers' record at tackling burglaries.

"We have already seen a significant decrease in the number of dwelling burglaries compared with last year," he said.

"We are putting more and more resources into this particular area of criminality. If burglars want to burgle, they should avoid coming to this city."

Det Chief Insp Jones added: "Although the latest figures sound bad, this is exactly the same as last year and in previous years.

"It is a historic fact that this period sees the largest increase in dwelling breaks, due to the fact that students are returning to the city and are discovering they have been burgled."

Latest figures show one in five house burglaries reported to Southampton police is successfully detected - two per cent above the force's target.

Southampton now has a specialist squad of police officers to tackle house burglaries, street robberies and violent crime.

Based at Southampton Central police station, the crime team, run by Det Insp Derek Stubbington, was responsible for eight burglary arrests early last Thursday morning alone.

The crackdown is part of Operation Boa, a city-wide initiative backed by Southampton City Council and the Daily Echo, to rid Southampton's streets of burglars.