A QUICK-thinking police officer has told how he tackled a sword-wielding man by punching him in the face.

Brave Sergeant Alan Clayton said he had little option but to punch 33-year-old Samuel Currie on the nose as he feared the weapon would be used on him.

Currie brought terror to Honeyhole in the Mosley Street area of Blackburn on Sunday.

But the intervention of Sgt Clayton and his collegues Police Constable Leo Noctor and Police Constable Mike Smith meant that no members of the public or police officers were injured.

He said: “I was not in a position to talk him into handing over the sword because he was behaving in a very erratic manner.

"I was also too close to him to use my parva (pepper) spray. There was no choice but to punch him.”

Sgt Clayton and his officers reported to a block of flats in Honeyhole after calls of a man with a sword causing a disturbance.

They saw Currie, of nearby Yates Fold, on the top landing.

He was shouting and banging and as the officers approached he reached out and opened a cupboard where the officers saw a black hand gun, which turned out to be a replica.

He was hiding a sword with a two-foot-long blade down the back of his trousers Sgt Clayton said: “I confronted the man and I saw him reach to his trousers.

"A colleague shouted to me that he had a knife so my reaction was to use a pre-emptive strike to subdue the situation.

“I was not risking my safety or the safety of those around me. It is what we are trained to do.”

At Blackburn Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday Currie pleaded guilty to possessing a Samurai sword in a public place.