A local man yesterday fired an official complaint at Police after officers allegedly destroyed his bike during a nighttime raid in Paget.

And Police have now launched an internal investigation into the matter.

Kevon Smith, 20, of Horseshoe Road, Southampton told The Royal Gazette that he was outside Paget Primary on Ord Road with his cycle when Police officers arrived at the scene in a paddy wagon around 11 p.m. on Sunday.

There were a group of young children nearby who were vandalising a bus shelter so he "disappeared'', leaving his bike parked with the keys in it and his helmet and boom box sitting on its seat, claimed Mr. Smith.

With the arrival of the Police the alleged vandals scattered, said Mr. Smith, who added that he got away from the area because "I did not want to be mixed up in what they were doing''.

However, he kept an eye on his bike and claimed he saw two white officers and a black officer approach his bike and then the two white men began clubbing it with their batons.

"They smashed my bike right up,'' Mr. Smith said.

The officers then took the keys out of the cycle and locked his bike with his own kryptonite lock before smashing his boom box and taking it away with them, he claimed.

And he said a resident in the area also witnessed the attack.

"I saw them take the keys and I saw them smash it up with my own eyes,'' he stressed. "A neighbour saw it too. They locked it with my own krypto and took the keys. They got my house keys, krypto keys and bike keys and my big boom box. The Police smashed it up and then took it.'' Mr. Smith further alleged that when he approached the officers and questioned their actions, they laughed at him and blamed what had happened on other bystanders.

"They said someone else did it,'' he said. "Then they were making jokes and asked how I was going to get home now. They said my friends took my keys and locked my bike so I couldn't go anywhere.'' He said he had to get bolt cutters to remove the lock from his bike and hotwired his own cycle so he could get home.

And when he went to complain to Police officers yesterday morning about the incident and the alleged removal of his boom box, the officers "said they left it there'', claimed Mr. Smith.

Police spokesman Coleman Easton yesterday afternoon said: "Police can confirm that a complaint has been made by a 20-year-old Southampton man regarding an incident that occurred on Ord Road last evening.

"The matter is being investigated internally.''