FOOTAGE of a number of sinister looking clowns in East Lancashire has been posted on social media, the Lancashire Telegraph can reveal.

Yesterday the ‘killer clown’ craze continued to spread across the UK with one force dealing with 14 reports in 24 hours.

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Officers have been called to a string of incidents where pranksters or criminals dress as clowns try to scare innocent bystanders.

At the weekend Lancashire police issued a warning to deter people from taking part in the American-inspired craze.

Nationally thousands of people on Facebook have shared their stories, pictures and videos of people dressed up as clowns.

VIDEO: Burnley Clown Sightings - Facebook

But psychologists have also warned that these pranks could cause people to have a fear of clowns ‘for life’.

A page called Burnley Clown Sightings has proved to be a catalyst for people sharing posts on real sightings.

The site includes a clown peering through the window at Ewood McDonalds, a photograph of a clown standing outside Lowerhouse County Junior School in Burnley, another pictured near to Pendle Hill on the way to Sabden and one by the entrance to Corporation Park, Blackburn.

Police also said a post shared over 3,500 times stating that a clown tried to stab a man in Darwen had not been reported to them.

The post claimed that someone was being treated at A&E after grabbing a knife from someone dressed as a clown.

One resident wrote: “Sat in A&E and someone comes in with his hand bandaged up (finger visibly missing) and gets into conversation with another man...a man dressed up as a clown tried to stab him in Darwen, he grabbed the knife with his hand and the person dressed as a clown sliced his finger off. I thought these people were just jokers but they ARE NOT joking. Please be careful if you are around the Darwen area. PLEASE SHARE.”

Although some posts are fake Lancashire Police previously issued a warning.

A police spokesman previously posted on Facebook: “We are currently receiving an increase in enquiries in relation to information being shared on social media regarding clowns and people being chased.

“Lancashire Police would like to make it perfectly clear that reports of anyone behaving in this way, regardless of their intentions, will be taken seriously.

“This type of action could cause alarm or distress and could be deemed as ‘Harassment ‘and subsequently dealt with as a criminal offence.”

Dr Sandi Mann, lecturer at UCLAN, specialises in phobias and panic attacks and said the scaremongering was ‘damaging’.

She said: “The fear of clowns is one of the most common phobias. That’s because we don’t know what’s behind the mask.

“Most clowns are benign but with this it’s the unknown fear and these clowns are potentially doing a lot of damage.

“Kids who were never scared of clowns will see these pictures on facebook and suddenly become frightened.

“It can be very damaging in the long run. If they didn’t have a fear to start with they certainly will now and it’s the long term effects that we worry about.”