THE Muslim festival of Eid was celebrated with a party at Bangor Street Community Centre, Blackburn, for more than 500 people.

The Eid Milan - meaning get-together - party was organised by the Pakistan Welfare Organisation with guest speakers including the chief executive of Communicare, Ken Johnson, who spoke on health issues for the ethnic minorities.

Inspector Andrew Pratt, of Blackburn police, also attended the event on Friday evening and thanked the community for helping prevent the violence which marred last year's festival.

Organiser Parwaiz Akhtar said: "The main aim of the party was to make people aware of the services that are available to the community and to put Asians in contact with community organisations."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.