BLATANT law-breaking has been found by undercover police vetting firework sales.

Not only are they being sold in East Lancashire to under-age children as young as 12, but shopkeepers are not storing them safely, as the law says they should.

The police are angry and alarmed.

They are right to be so.

For they are often the ones who witness at first hand the horrific injuries that occur each year through fireworks being in the wrong hands. And though, over the years, the grim toll of accidents arising from Bonfire Night has diminished through greater public safety awareness, there is no excuse for any risk being sustained by shopkeepers putting profits before their responsibility.

It is not enough, then, for the police to urge traders to behave better.

They should throw the book at each and every one of the offenders they have observed.

And the courts should back them up with maximum fines - so that rogue shopkeepers quickly discover that there is no profit in flouting the fireworks laws.

On top of that, the trading standards authority should disqualify each convicted retailer from holding a fireworks sales licence - for good.

For the goal must be total safety.

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