CONCERNS have been raised about the growing number of gun crimes in Hyndburn.

In the past 12 months detectives have been forced to investigate at least six incidents involving guns.

In January seven men were arrested in connection with shots fired in Stanhill Street, Oswaldtwistle.

A gun was believed to have been fired from a car and a house was hit while the owners were inside. A parked vehicle was also damaged.

Detectives said the shot came from a dark Range Rover and was aimed at people in another moving vehicle but missed its target.

In June, bullets were also fired through the window of a house in Richmond Hill Street, Accrington. A 60-year-old woman who was in the property was injured by flying glass. Children were inside too, officers said.

It was followed by a second incident in the same street as bullets were fired at a second house.

It was thought both incidents were connected to be a feud between two gangs.

Those incidents came just days after a Ford Fiesta was found abandoned with a shotgun hole in it in Alan Ramsbottom Way, Great Harwood.

In July, one man was arrested for possession of an imitation firearm after two gangs clashed in Birtwistle Street, Accrington.

Cllr Peter Britcliffe, of Oswaldtwistle, said: “We have an increasing issues with gun crimes nationally and obviously we in East Lancashire are not immune to it.

“Incidents like this show what an increasing problem it is."

Hyndburn MP Graham Jones said: “The possession of firearms should carry the most serious of sentences.”

St Oswald's Cllr Glen Harrison said: “Somewhere along the line someone in Hyndburn has a gun racket going. My biggest fear is where did they get that from and who are they mixing with."