MORE than 100 fish have died after vandals caused River Test streams to run dry.

Trout, bill heads, minnows, stone loaches and lamprey were left floundering in the stream bed after vandals tampered with Environment Agency equipment.

The organisation say someone had altered settings on their special hatch system at Greatbridge Industrial Estate, Romsey, which controls the flow of water across all of the tributaries of the River Test throughout the town centre.

They believe the vandal had allowed more water than necessary to flow into another part of the water system, stripping the stream between The Hundred and Middlebridge Street of any flow.

The Environment Agency discovered the system had been tampered with when a member of the public called them at 7.20am Sunday to let them know the stream had run dry.

But before they were able to get the water flowing at its normal levels dozens of fish had lost their lives.

Now they are urging people not to tamper with their complex equipment which helps them to maintain the watercourses and protect wildlife across the county.

Wesley Jones from the Environment Agency said: "We have got some hatches that control the flow of water near the industrial estate.

"Someone has tried to redirect water from one stream to another and what they have done is deprive one part of the river of water.

"As soon as we were made aware of it yesterday morning we corrected it but unfortunately more than 100 fish have died.

"The river ran dry. That's why we ask people not to mess around with our systems.

"They're important in controlling the water around Romsey and they make sure that each stream is at the correct conditions.

"We would like to appeal to the public to speak to the police or call our incident hotline if they know anything about this incident or if they see anyone tampering with any of our equipment."

The organisation collected many of the fish, but more than 50 are still at the bottom of the stream.

However, the Environment Agency said there was no risk to people or animals and that the remaining carcasses will be eaten by natural predators.

Anyone with any information about this incident can call the Environment Agency's hotline on 0800 807060.