Blackpool plagued by seagulls that steal food and attack

Residents fear the seagulls are worse than previous years as the latest batch of chicks start to become active.

A lifeguard said the animals are a “constant nuisance” and the council has urged the public to clean away their litter and has told them not to feed the birds.

Lifeguard Lauren Brook, 23, said: "They're a constant nuisance.

People in Blackpool say the town is being plagued by hungry and angry seagulls SWNS/L.B Photography (Image: SWNS/L.B Photography)

"Generally, visitors might feed them or put a chip out on the floor for them or encourage them to take it from their hand.

"But if you get some any food out, they pick it straight up and they want more and then they come and attack them after that.

"When I've not been working I've been attacked by them. When I've been having a sandwich walking along, I've been swooped on by a seagull.

A woman in Blackpool surrounded by hungry and angry seagulls (Image: SWNS/L.B Photography)

"The main thing is for people to just realise that by feeding them, it's making them worse, so don't feed them."

Pictures have emerged of the animals stealing food at the seaside resort plagued by the nuisance birds.

The winged terrors are seen taking chips from people on Blackpool seafront.

One man is seen eating his fish and chips while two seagulls quietly keep watch nearby.

In a later snap, he is seen by at least 19 of them surrounding him for a bite of his dinner.

And he's later seen trying to speak on his phone, while the noisy nuisances squawk next to him.

In another set of snaps, a woman is seen holding a chip out for a seagull that's swooping on her.

But she later looks terrified as a flock of them scrap over a chunk on the floor.

The resort is so plagued by the flying scavengers that earlier this year Blackpool Zoo sought to recruit a team of people to wear bird costumes to scare them off.

Bosses said the birds had been persistently stealing food from visitors and animal enclosures.

The zoo recently launched an appeal to find a missing pelican who was scared away by a flock of the birds.

In 2019, elderly couple Roy and Brenda Pickard were 'held hostage' in their own home in nearby Knott End by seagulls.

They were unable to get out of their front door for almost a week after two seagull chicks slipped onto the canopy directly above their door.

The positioning of the baby gulls - just nine foot off the ground - meant any time Roy attempted to leave his home, he was confronted by two squawking adult seagulls.

At one point, Roy was hit so hard on the back of the head by one bird he had to be taken to hospital to treat the bloody wound.