HUNDREDS of shocked residents watched a hot air balloon land on a patch of waste ground behind houses.

Pilot Graham Church, of the Pendle Balloon Company, was carrying nine passengers on a pleasure flight when he landed on the 50- yard square patch behind Lambeth Street and Walter Street, Audley, Blackburn.

Residents who spotted the balloon flying low over the houses and industrial units believed it was going to crash and called emergency services at 8.45pm yesterday. Among the passengers were Betty Carey and Beryl Aspin, from Tyldesley.

Blackburn firefighters were already in the area as they were returning from another call-out and watched the balloon land. Leading firefighter Dave Hilliard said: "I don't know why he chose to land it there instead of in the park, but he did it very skilfully. There were a lot of people trying to help by pulling the fabric of the balloon down, but it would have collapsed over the basket by itself."

Mr Church said he had set off from Ribchester about an hour earlier but the wind had died away and he had been forced to find a suitable landing ground.

He said: "I've landed on much smaller areas. It's perfectly safe to land in a residential area because it's only a bag of wind -- it's not something that can hurt people."

Mr Church was the subject of an official report by the Civil Aviation Authority after he twice crashed, injuring 17 passengers in four months two years ago.

One man suffered a broken leg during the second crash at Longridge when the balloon made a "hard" landing and bounced up 20 feet.