THERE is nowhere left for criminal clubbers to hide as a Bournemouth venue unveils the town's most high-tech surveillance system.

When you visit Elements nightclub on Fir Vale Road, you are entering the most watched place in town.

They have just fitted an £80,000 system, comprising 97 state-of-the-art cameras that watch every nook and cranny of the establishment, and much of the road outside.

Deputy manager John Wilson said: "We were encouraged to increase our cover by the police, and the company took the opportunity to make it one of the best systems in the country.

"We are now able to keep a track of everything that happens, and the picture is perfect quality.

"We are fortunate not to have too much trouble here, but if anything happens now, we will have it all digitally recorded."

Images are saved on to a bank of hard drives, rather than video, which can be accessed from several places in the club.

They can also be reviewed immediately by club staff, which was not possible under the previous system.

A bank of screens in the back office allows managers to keep an eye on everything that is happening in the 2,300-capacity venue.

It took Secom, the company that installed the system, five weeks to put all the cameras and computers in place.

On Wednesday, they gave a demonstration to representatives from Dorset Police, the licensing team and crime prevention units from surrounding areas.