A LANDLADY has told how her customers were forced to barricade themselves inside her pub to protect themselves from a baying mob of thugs.

Around 20 people were arrested on Saturday evening after rugby league fans attacked the Jolly Waggoners pub in Manchester Old Road, Bury.

Bricks, stones and picnic tables were hurled through the windows of the pub after landlady Mrs Georgina Harmer refused to let the 40-strong group into the bar.

She said: "The group had been in earlier and I knew it would have been a mistake to let them back in. These were not rugby fans but thugs hellbent on causing destruction."

The mass brawl followed Leigh Rugby League's one point defeat in the Ford Northern Premiership Final on Saturday at Gigg Lane.

Around £3,000 worth of damage was caused to the Jolly Waggoners. A number of windows were smashed during the violence.

Mrs Harmer believes a life could have been lost as the "fans" launched every kind of missile available at the pub.

"It was terrifying," said Mrs Harmer. "There were about ten customers in the pub. They were only young, and they didn't really know what was going on.

"Anything and everything was thrown through the windows and the customers did their best to keep these idiots out. If they had got in then someone would have been killed, of that I am sure."

Other pubs in Bury town centre reported isolated violent incidents although the Jolly Waggoners took the brunt of Saturday's post-match disturbances.

Twenty people were arrested and charged with violent disorder and causing criminal damage. They will appear before magistrates in October once police have concluded their investigations.