Members of a social club claim they have been contacted by anonymous individuals who have threatened to 'burn down' the premise unless a Royal British Legion flag is removed from the building.

People who attend the Platt Social Club on Blackburn Road in Accrington raised concerns with police at the weekend, claiming a phone call was made to the club threatening to torch the establishment unless a Royal British Legion flag was removed from the premise.

A member, who wished to remain anonymous told the Lancashire Telegraph on Sunday: "I have just received a call telling us that unless we take our British Legion banner down from Platts then the club will be burnt down."

Former Hyndburn MP, Graham Jones, whose grandfather worked at Platt's his whole adult life said he received two phone calls from two different people informing him of the threats.

He said: "The Royal British Legion and Platt Social Club represent everything that is good about the country and about Hyndburn.

"Some idiots think they can make some sort of threat to the club and I do not think these individuals represent 99.9 per cent of the people in Hyndburn.

"The club is a Hyndburn institution and part of the history of Accrington.

"There was some anger about the club and a British Legion flag and I believe there's been two or three young males making the threats.

"They do not represent the public at large or even the public in West Accrington, and as far as I am aware, none of the people living in the area have an issue with the club.

"It's now a matter for the police and they are aware of it."

The police were contacted by worried members of the British Legion and are aware of the concerns surrounding threats made to the club.

However, they stated they had not received details of any specific threat to burn the club down.

A spokesperson for the police said: "We received a call from someone who had been contacted by an individual expressing concerns about the flag.

"There's no mention of threats, but the caller said the individual had not been happy with the flag being displayed outside the club in Accrington, and they were concerned about potential repercussions."

Anyone with information can contact the police on 101 quoting log number 1275 of November 28.