These haunting images show the bullet-ridden walls and derelict buildings show the dark side of one of America's most dangerous neighborhoods.

Bullet holes pictured here are evidence of the fact that there are nearly 2,000 violent crimes committed in this small city every year, and 57 of those are murders.

Gordon Donovan's newly published photo series paints an eerie picture of the ghost-like town where violence and drug-use are rife.

Mr Donovan, who snapped the images on a police ride-along, said: 'I knew Camden wasn't a safe place and had just passed a few times.

Statistics often disagree over which is the most dangerous city in the USA but there is rarely a list that doesn't include Detroit, which has been torn apart by gang violence.

But Mr Donovan has been to many cities that claim to top the bill, but Camden is the worst and among the most rundown he has seen.

Disused offices have become 'shooting galleries' - places for heroin users to inject, while vacant homes harbor the homeless and acts as dumping ground for waste.

One photo shows an abandoned home with a make-shift letter box used by dealers to receive payment for illegal drugs.

In another of the stark photos showing the level of deprivation in the neighborhood, only stray cats and graffiti line the streets.

Many of the houses have been boarded up, as fed-up residents flee the deprivation and the high crime rates in the New Jersey city.

The keen photographer was concerned about his camera equipment so he visited the notorious city with local law enforcement.

The officer told him stories about squad cars being ransacked during investigations and at one point we stopped because a few panhandlers were approaching people at a traffic light.

The police officer who took him on the trip knew about its problems but was nostalgic about the area and enjoyed taking him out. He loved the neighbourhood and wants to do right with it.