LOOK to the skies -- a new government report has revealed that East Lancashire could be destroyed by an asteroid within our lifetimes.

Experts say that among the "near earth objects" that they know about, a hunk of rock capable of destroying an area of more than 2,000sq km -- roughly the size of our community -- hits the earth at least once every 250 years.

But that's only the ones that they know about and an unseen asteroid could hit at any time! The last such event was when an asteroid hit Tunguska in Siberia in Russia in 1908, killing 5,000 people.

Science Minister Lord Sainsbury, possibly worried about the fate of the family supermarkets, proposed that UK telescopes and physicists would set up a UK taskforce to watch out for the asteroids.

He said: "Currently there are no known large near earth objects whose orbit puts them on a collision course with earth. While the risk of being hit by near earth objects is very remote, the potential for significant damage exists which is why the potential threat is an issue which requires action by the international community."

While most small asteroids break up in the atmosphere, a bigger one of between 50 and 300 metres in diameter would destroy an area the size of a city such as Washington, London or Moscow -- and would take out most or all of East Lancashire whose current population is 513,400.

Every 4,000 years a bigger asteroid of more than 100 megatonnes hits the earth destroying even bigger areas such as those the size of New York or Tokyo.

But don't worry too much -- the chances of a "super asteroid" making it to earth and hitting East Lancashire are one in 75,000.

Unless, of course, it's one of the ones the scientists haven't spotted coming! So what would YOU do with those last moments? RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "I would put Classic FM on the radio and make myself a cup of tea." But he said the government was right to prepare for such an event.

HYNDBURN MP and government whip Greg Pope said: "I would want to be with my family. I would watch the video of Blackburn Rovers winning the Premiership in 1995.

SOCCER fan and Burnley MP Peter Pike said: "I would get out some old Burnley Football Club programmes and pour a glass of wine or pint of beer and wait for the end."

KERRY Manson of Audley, Blackburn, said "It wouldn't really worry me, because I believe in life after death. I would probably round up all my friends and get to the pub."

JOANNE Haydock said: "I would want to go out with a smile on my face with all my friends around me. To be honest, it would take a lot of doing to persuade me that it was true."

LEE Dickinson of Bank Top, Blackburn, said he'd take the opportunity to do something he'd been thinking of for a long time: "I'd tell everyone what I thought of them," he grinned