AT just two months old this pair of fluffy cygnets are all alone in the world.

Their mother's broken body was found in a cloud of white feathers at a Hampshire beauty spot yesterday, ripped to shreds by an animal after it is believed she was shot.

Just three weeks ago their father was discovered dead with a red bullet wound in the middle of his snowy chest.

And a third cygnet hasn't been seen for days by walkers at the Hook Bird Sanctuary in Warsash, who have become attached to the elegant family.

They firmly believe that someone is hunting down the regal birds and picking them off slowly one at a time.

But the orphaned youngsters are today winging their way to the safety of a bird Sanctuary in Dorset after an RSPCA officer scooped them up.

Bob Thomas, who lives in Warsash, made the latest grim find as he walked his dog along the foreshore at 6.30am and alerted police to the scene.

He said: "It looks like a fox had a go at the mother after she was shot.

"What annoys me is that somewhere in Warsash lives someone that is doing this."

Dog walker Audrey Skehan, 63, from Warsash, said at the scene: "This is just terrible. I can't think why anyone would do this again.

"When I heard that someone had shot the father I went home and cried. I came down every day and checked them and thought 'thank goodness' when I saw them.

"The young ones are very vulnerable at the moment and I don't know how long they would last on their own."

Lucy Clerk from the RSPCA said: "It is very upsetting that these poor things have lost their mother and their father and we would appeal to anyone who has information on the deaths to come forward.

"The future for the cygnets is bright now. They will stay at the centre until they are nine to ten months old and then be introduced back into the wild."