POLICE were called to deal with a large disturbance involving 20 teenagers in a town centre.

Witnesses alerted police after seeing two boys and two girls, aged between 15 and 16 years old, being assaulted in the Jubilee Street area of Blackburn.

The teenagers all suffered minor bruising, with one 16-year-old boy being taken to the Royal Blackburn Hospital after a cut to his ear failed to stop bleeding.

Officers said they were alerted to the incident around 7pm yesterday.

When they arrived the two groups ran off in different directions but officers managed to round up the youths.

Inspector Des Barr, who is leading the investigation, said: “Large groups of youths will not be allowed to congregate in the town centre disrupting and disrupting members of the public from going about their daily business.

“An investigation has now been launched into the incident and offers will be analysing CCTV footage. I urge anyone who witnessed the incident to come forward and help us to piece together what happened.”

A 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl, from Blackburn, were arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly but were released without charge yesterday morning.

A 17-year-old boy from Burnley was last night still being questioned by police after he was arrested on suspicion of common assault.

Anyone with information should call police on 101.