SHOW some respect.

This is the plea to ‘ghoulish’ souvenir hunters who have been trawling the field where the Red Arrows plane crashed.

Residents in Throop are calling for an end to the ‘disrespectful’ behaviour and police say they are investigating reports of people taking scattered debris from the Red 4 jet crash site.

Stephen Young, who lives in the village, says the site close to Throop Mill was awash with hundreds of people over the Bank Holiday weekend searching the field where Flt Lt Jon Egging tragically lost his life.

He said: “I have been left sickened. They were just like ants crawling all over it.

“At one point I counted 35 people all bent down in the field. It is very ghoulish and disrespectful.”

Flt Lt Egging, 33, died when his jet crashed into a field near the River Stour after a final formation manoeuvre near Bournemouth airport on August 20. He had just thrilled the masses on the seafront with a full Red Arrows display as part of Bournemouth Air Festival.

Mr Young said: “This weekend the Mill has been packed with hundreds of people visiting Red 4’s resting place.

“I have seen people clambering all over the fences onto the Malmesbury Estate trying to get a piece of the plane.”

Mr Young said he witnessed one person with a metal detector scouring the field and another even posed for a picture of the items he had found. The picture has now been sent to Bournemouth CID.

“We have had people coming up and asking: where was the body found? Where was the plane found?

“It just sickens me.

“I know a lot of local people have been quite upset with the people coming down and the ghoulish sight-seekers asking stupid questions. It is not on.”

A spokesman for Dorset Police said officers from CID are investigating after receiving a report from a woman on August 25 that she had seen people with metal detectors and shovels at the crash site.

“The warning is anybody found to be taking parts of the aircraft should be aware it is RAF property and they are committing theft,” she said.