ARMED police surrounded a house after reports that a man had threatened his former girlfriend with a handgun.

The siege began after residents reported hearing two shots and the woman used her mobile phone to call her mother and ask for help.

Police negotiators spent 90 minutes talking to a man inside a house in Chapel Street, Rishton, after being called

at 10.55pm yesterday. A 25-year-old man was later arrested on the suspicion of making threats, possessing a blank-firing handgun, two Samurai knifes, a curved blade, three smaller knives and a martial arts-style cane with chains on each end.

He was due to be questioned by police at Greenbank police station, Whitebirk, today. The woman was unhurt.

Today, eye-witnesses told how Chapel Street was blocked off by police officers in the early hours and one neighbour, who asked not to be named, claimed he heard two shots.

Another, Mark Harling, 36, watched on from a window. He said: "They certainly went in with guns. I watched until about two in the morning.

"They blocked all the road off and were just pointing guns. There were about four or five police cars."

Another resident, who also asked not to be named, said: "This end of Rishton doesn't normally get a lot of trouble. It's normally the top end. This area is normally quiet."

Police said neighbours heard shouting and screaming from a house across the road from the property involved in the siege.

Further calls were also made to 999 after residents reported seeing a man walking down the street carrying what looked like a handgun.

The police armed response team surrounded the house.

Inspector Steve Howarth said the incident was believed to be of a domestic nature and added: "A blank-firing handgun was recovered.

"You get a discharge with this sort of gun, which is dangerous up to a few metres away - it can blind people.

"People reported hearing one or two discharges from a gun.

"Because of that information, the armed response team was deployed to surround another address along with other officers.

"A long period of time was spent trying to talk a man out of the house. He eventually came out of his own accord."