POLICE have come under fire from residents after a housing estate was used to practise carrying out raids and dealing with emergency situations.

Witnesses described officers armed with guns using the Two Gates estate in Darwen on Thursday and Friday afternoon last week.

Police and Twin Valley Homes, which owns the houses on the estate - many of which are empty due to the fact the area is being demolished - confirmed the training exercise.

But Coun Roy Davies claimed many residents had been left disturbed and worried by what they had seen.

Coun Davies said: "We know these guys might be asked at any time to put their lives on the line for us and we do appreciate that and we do want to co-operate with them.

"But there was no notification whatsoever given about this. There were quite a lot of children watching and it was frightening because people didn't know what was going on.

"There have been lots of rumours going around. The police should recognise that we should have had warning.

"I feel really perturbed about this and I've had a number of complaints from residents about it.

"The community centre phoned the police to see what was going on because they were so worried. I phoned too and was told they were practising their rapid response breaking into houses."

Coun Davies said police broke into empty houses and appeared to be armed.

A spokesman for Twin Valley Homes said: "We did give police permission to undertake the exercise on the empty estate, but a police training officer assured us residents had been informed it was happening."

A police spokesman confirmed they had used the area for a training exercise but was unable to say whether residents had been given prior notification.