WORK has begun to remove one of the last security symbols of the Troubles.
A demolition team has moved in to bulldoze the reinforced sangar and blast wall at the former Downpatrick PSNI station on Irish Street in the Co Down town.
At one time a sangar - a fortified lookout post - marked every police station and army barracks in the north.
Irish Street will be closed for up to three weeks while the site is being demolished.
The station has not been in use since a new £11 million PSNI station was built at the old Downshire hospital site last year.
Following the removal of the sangar and blast wall, a new one-way system is expected to be introduced to the town centre in a bid to lessen traffic jams.
Blast walls and sangars were often added to RUC stations during the Troubles as reinforcements against car bombs.
