A HACKER has been repeatedly targeting Worcester's Youthcomm Radio, attempting to break into its website and even temporarily taking the station off the air.

Staff say the station was switched off remotely a number of times earlier this year but, thanks to an emergency system, was only ever off-air for a few seconds.

Since the hacks in May and June, attempts to turn the station off have stopped, but efforts to break into its social media accounts and website continue.

A spokesman for Youthcomm, which is based in Swanpool Walk, St John's, has branded the attacks "inconvenient" and "sad".

A police investigation is currently ongoing and staff at Youthcomm say they believe the person responsible is known to them.

A spokesman for Youthcomm said: "Someone was switching the station off. We didn't know what it was.

"We are talking about being off air for seconds and then it is back on again. It doesn't affect our adverts at all, which is important.

"This person is still trying to break into our website. We have someone monitoring it all the time. There is someone still trying to break into our Twitter account, we just keep changing our passwords all the time."

Station staff have now spent about £4,000 replacing equipment affected by the hacker.

The spokesman said: "We found out they had put a lot of software onto the computer, we had to bring in experts to analyse and take it off. In the end we just bought new computers.

"We think that it is very sad that someone is doing it, but they can't do any damage as such because we have these systems. It is inconvenient but not life-threatening at all. It is just annoying.

"We are not off air, we haven't been off air as such and we are growing. Youthcomm is getting bigger and bigger."

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said: "West Mercia Police is continuing to investigate an incident in Worcester, where computer and CCTV systems are believed to have been accessed remotely by an unknown offender or offenders, resulting in disruption to services.

"A number of witnesses are assisting police with their enquiries."

Anyone with information should call 101.