POLICE have warned homeowners to be on their guard after an elderly woman found an intruder in her kitchen in Barrowford.

Officers said the 61-year-old woman was faced with a man when she walked into her kitchen, in Gisburn Road, on last Friday afternoon.

The intruder asked the woman if the house was a hostel or a boarding house in broken English, before fleeing when someone else entered the room.

The man is described as being 5ft 10ins tall, with cropped mousy brown hair and clean shaven. He was wearing navy blue tracksuit bottoms with sunglasses and spoke in an Eastern European accent.