RESIDENTS and elderly neighbours in a retirement home are being terrorised by a group of teenage yobs who are running riot on an estate.

Staff at Surikha House, Darwen, said youths rampaging in the area had smashed part off a 6ft perimeter wall of the home, leaving rubble strewn across the car park and a neighbouring road.

Manager Cath Fielding said some residents were unable to walk around the grounds and car park because the youths were there. She said the group, in their mid-teens, were also drinking and had left beer cans in the spot where they regularly congregate outside the home.

Mrs Fielding said they were there until midnight on some occasions.

"I've never seen this place such a mess," she said. "They've virtually demolished the wall in one place and now they're starting on another.

"People on nearby streets are phoning us up complaining about the mess on the road and the car park inside the wall is covered in big bricks.

"We have a 98-year-old who likes to sit on a bench in the grounds but he can't go out while they are there. We have a lady resident who likes to go out and collect rubbish from the yard and she has found loads of beer cans and bottles. When she challenged the lads, they swore at her."

A spokeswoman for Darwen police said they had received three calls from the home in the last week.

"We've passed the incident on to area beat officers and they are working on improving the situation," she said.