AN ELDERLY couple today described how masked raiders tried to break in to their block of flats on the night a man was blasted to death with a shotgun.

The couple, who asked not to be identified for fear of revenge attacks, spoke as police continued to question four men and a woman arrested over the death of Darren Bell, 31.

Darren, of York Street, Blackburn, died on the operating table at Blackburn Infirmary after being shot at a house in Mona Road in the early hours of Thursday. Three other men were injured and two others -- Mark Wareing and Steven Bashir -- remained in hospital today.

The couple told how they were woken at about 12.30am by a banging noise at the back door of the block in Temple Drive where one of the shooting victims, believed to be Mark Wareing, lives.

The intruders had tried to smash through the door frame with an axe or a machete to get to an upstairs flat. The Temple Drive address was sealed off by police yesterday as forensic experts searched for clues.

Police confirmed that the incident was being investigated and was linked to the events at Mona Road.

One of the couple said: "I woke up at about 12.30am and heard the buzzer on the front door go twice but I didn't answer it. Then there was a loud banging noise at the back door."

The intruders left, however, before getting in to the flat, possibly after receiving a phone call telling them to go to Mona Road. At 3am masked gunmen pulled up in an F-reg blue or grey Vauxhall Cavalier at the junction of Mona Road and Manxman Road and ran up to the front door of the house. Shots, possibly from a 12-bore shotgun, were fired through the door and hit Darren Bell, 31, in the stomach.

Eight people and a baby were in the house at the time. The adults were having a party following a night out in Blackburn.

Police said they believed the shooting may have followed an argument in Blackburn nightclub Utopia earlier that night.