SOCIAL media rumours that a person dressed as a clown was mugging people in Burnley on Tuesday night are false, police said.

Dozens of posts on Facebook and Twitter claimed the clown had been spotted in Rosegrove, Rosehill and Harle Syke, although no original pictures were posted.

A Lancashire Police spokesman said they had received ‘a couple’ of phone calls from people concerned by what they had seen online, but that no eye-witness sightings or crimes had been reported.

A Facebook page, Spot the Burnley Clown, which has been active since September, continued to post messages yesterday afternoon.

Several people offered to meet the clown in various areas of the town in order to prove its authenticity.

In September, a man dressed as clown in Northampton terrified residents by standing on street corners, sparking numerous copycat incidents.