PUZZLE fans who like an immersive challenge can pit themselves against a new ‘escape room’.

Franchise Lucardo is coming to East Lancashire and has opened a new escape room called Corruption, and the first weekend was fully booked.

Simon Milnes, 35, and Dave Armitage, 39, have been trialling the business on Kay Street in Rawtenstall for the last few weeks and said it has been a resounding success.

They are now taking bookings and the first weekend since its official launched was fully booked.

Mr Milnes said: “An escape room is a live-action game which immerses people in another world. It could be that you are a diamond thief – now who in this real world is an actual diamond thief?

“So, an escape room is where you get put into a scenario and you have to get out of that situation.”

In the Corruption room, players are put into the mindset of a bunch of policemen who have been corrupted and now work for a notorious criminal gang known for theft and murder.

There are just 60 minutes to escape the room before the real police arrive.

Mr Milnes added: “There’s puzzles, clues and riddles you have to solve for you to get through the game, like unlocking locks and codes.

“The escape rooms are for everybody, from 12+, but it’s the host’s job to make sure that everybody gets as far as they possibly can, and we do that by giving clues if required.”

Mr Milnes, a former maths teacher, has played more than 75 games as he runs a blog reviewing different escape rooms in the country.

He said: “I came across Dave, my next-door neighbour, and we managed to secure a franchise with Lucardo, which is the number one thing to do in Manchester.

“The owners Adam and Ian read my blog, and they liked it, so they knew how enthusiastic I was for the escape rooms.

“From there the following got bigger and bigger, a lot of owners read the blog, because they want to know what’s going on in other people’s room.”

There is also Gem Runner room at Rawtenstall.