STUDENTS are being warned to ensure their accommodation and property is always secure following a rise in burglaries in Southampton.

As they start to return to the city for a new term, police have revealed that they have had a busy start to 2008 because of break-ins at student homes.

Last weekend more than 20 different scenes were forensically investigated - each in shared homes or halls of residence.

Officers in the city's burglary investigation unit based at Hulse Road said they also had numerous reports of thefts from properties over the Christmas period where rooms in multi-occupancy houses as well as halls of residence were ransacked.

The break-ins happened in spite of a police warning before the festivities that students should not leave valuables, including laptop computers, behind while they went home for Christmas.