Tamil leaders, police officers, and council officials are holding summit meetings to try to find ways to engage with disaffected young members of the community.

The meetings have been held find a way of tackling a growing issue of small number of Tamil teens who are hanging around the streets in South Harrow and causing problems.

Community leaders are eager to include the youths in activities to divert them away from potentially falling into crime.

Siva Subramaniam is one of the community leaders who has been discussing the issue with police.

He said: “We are working on a plan to organise events to explore their talents and bring them into the mainstream.

“They are youngsters finding it difficult to adapt into the mainstream, and find it hard to stay in school.

“Because of that they tend to group between themselves, they are teenagers who want to have their own identity.

“But when they are finding it hard to cope, they go to the negative side of things to show they are big people.”

Police and community leaders have identified a group of between 15 and 20 Tamils who are regularly congregating in Northolt Road in South Harrow causing anti-social behaviour.

The Harrow Times understands some of those teenagers may have been present at a recent incident at Byron Hall when police had to step in and close down an event.

Police have now begun to meet with members of the community and council officials to try to flesh out a plan to stop the disaffected youths turning to a life of crime.

Inspector Dave Burgum, who is involved in the talks for Harrow Police, said: “The formation of some of the gangs is because they have no focus.

“We are trying to preempt things and be ahead of the game, and if you give a kid something they want, what comes with that is self respect, respect for others, a sense of purpose, and this has been very successful in the past.”

Teenagers who have only moved to the country in the last few years from France and Germany, speak little if any English, and struggle at school, have been identified of those with the most potential to cause trouble.

The Tamil community in Harrow already organises a wide range of events and activities for its people, and is hoping to expand the programme to include these teenagers who could feel left out.

Mr Subramaniam was keen to stress the community is doing a lot to solve problems, and said the perception of the Tamil community can be skewed when a small minority cause trouble.

But he said the vast majority of Tamils are aware of the problems and are eager to find a solution