蜜芽传媒

Illegal metal-detecting at Hadrian鈥檚 Wall is wrecking part of the country鈥檚 cultural heritage, landowners, police and experts have said. Areas close to the 1,900-year-old world heritage site have been targeted in a crime known as nighthawking.

The English Heritage national crime adviser, Mark Harrison, has appealed for the thieves to be caught and said they are "causing irreversible loss and harm".

Turf has been pulled up and searchers have dug down and raked through the soil to steal items that may have been hidden since Roman times.

"In the act of digging that, they are digging through the archaeological content, not only are they taking objects that may have some value they are actually causing irreversible loss and harm to cultural heritage," said Mr Harrison.

He also said the vast majority of people use metal detectors as a hobby and are law abiding, and that it's "a tiny minority" causing damage.