BLACKBURN'S police chief today said he was surprised after one of Britain's most senior officers claimed racial tensions in the town were 'simmering'.

Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, believes 'tidal waves' of immigrants coming into the area could 'tip the balance'.

He made his comments in a newspaper article which claimed forces across the country were seeing high levels of organised crime associated with asylum seekers.

But Chief Superintendent Dave Mallaby, head of the Eastern Division covering Blackburn, said today: "There is absolutely nothing at the moment that suggests that Blackburn is simmering at all, in fact it is quite the opposite.

"The local authority, the communities of Blackburn and the police work very, very well together so there is a strong environment of trust and openness.

"The comments have taken us by surprise. That doesn't mean we are complacent and a lot of activity goes on reassuring the community and working together in terms of community cohesion."

Mr Fox, speaking ahead of ACPO's annual conference, said he believed the "vast majority" of immigrants were not involved in crime.

But he added: "What we are seeing now are incidents in towns and cities that we are having to deal with and it is a different problem to the one we have had in the past.

"Mass migration has brought with it a whole new range and a whole new type of crime, from the Nigerian fraudster, to the eastern European who deals in drugs and prostitution, to the Jamaican concentration on drug dealing," he said.

"My personal view is that this is a small island. We have some very intensely-populated areas and I think we have to be careful just how we let the mix develop.

"It's healthy that we've got lots of different people, but if you go into some of the cities, looking at the north, Bradford simmers, Blackburn simmers. It doesn't take much to disturb the balance."

He also called for greater international co-operation to weed out criminal elements using asylum-seekers as a cover to come into the country.