YOUNG people in Bradford on Avon are now well equipped to look after number one thanks to a training course at the town youth centre.

Around 15 teenagers volunteered for the Suzy Lamplugh training last night a two-hour session on personal safety organised by Youth Action Wiltshire and paid for by the Government.

The training comes after a 23-year-old woman was sexually assaulted walking home from the town centre along a footpath last month.

In light of the attack town councillors called for women not to be frightened but to take steps to ensure their own safety was not compromised, by taking courses like those from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

A roughly equal number of boys and girls signed up for last night's course at Bradford Youth Centre.

Michelle Meacham, Bradford youth development coordinator, said: "The places they hang-out in are not necessarily safe and there has been the attack on a girl recently that brings home the fact that they need to be aware.

"If this course is successful we'd look at doing more, because personal safety is something the kids are worried about."

Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh disappeared while meeting an unknown client in a flat in Fulham, West London, in 1986.

Though her body has never been found she has been presumed murdered and legally declared dead.

Her parents, Diana and Paul, set up the Trust in her memory when they realised that Suzy was probably unaware of the possible dangers that individuals can face in society.

Their work has been recognised with a £519,500 lottery grant from the Community Fund to get more courses up and running.

Mr Lamplugh said: "At first we felt that physical training could have protected Suzy, but quickly realised that if we could teach people to assess risks and develop their own strategies for avoiding or defusing violence and

aggression before it became confrontation, then we were equipping them with a

life skill that would see

them through most situations they might encounter, whether at work or in their daily lives."

Pippa McVeigh, community safety officer with West Wiltshire District Council, was involved in sourcing Home Office funding to donate to Youth Action Wiltshire to run the course.

Ms McVeigh has done a Suzy Lamplugh course herself and said she had no idea how many risks she took in her daily life until the course.

She said: "This course is about talking to young people at their own level and discussing the idea of risk and how to reduce it.

"When we ran this course for young people last year the feedback was good they all felt they had learnt something.

"It is not just about being safe out at night but about reading body language of other people, even people you know well.

"Statistically young men are much more likely to suffer violence so I am delighted that so many boys signed up for the Bradford course."