ASIAN families are the victims of racial harassment on Blackburn and Darwen's council estates, says a town hall report.

The report by housing bosses details racist attacks and says ethnic minority families living on predominantly white estates are the most vulnerable.

It records 27 separate incidents of racial harassment in the borough in the last six months of 1998.

Eight incidents were on the Shadsworth estate, five in Roman Road and four on the Delph Lane estate.

Other incidents were scattered across the borough in areas including Audley, Little Harwood and Darwen's Anchor estate.

The figures were revealed at a housing management sub-committee meeting. And Blackburn with Darwen's housing chairman Mohammed Khan revealed he has personal experience of Asian families who have suffered from harassment campaigns.

He said: "There are a number of Asian tenants on estates who suffer from all sorts of problems.

"They get fireworks pushed through the door, their children are beaten up, windows are broken and bins set on fire." Coun Khan added: "There have been one or two cases which have been going on for six months or more.

"In one particular case we asked the tenants not to move because we wanted to catch the people responsible.

"But in the end the whole thing just got too much for this particular family and they decided to move to a new area."

Coun Khan said every reported incident was investigated by the council with the help of the police.

Councillor Don Rishton added: "We have to bear in mind that things now are a lot better than they used to be.

Ramid Chowdry, director of the Racial Equality Council, said: "We can confirm that we receive reports of racial harassment and there is tension in some areas of our council estates.

"The majority of tenants cause no problems but a small minority create problems and as a REC we will work hard with the police and the council to identify the perpetrators."

"We have to take into account what things used to be like in this town 20 years ago when we had two National Front councillors."

Insp Andy Pratt of Blackburn Police said: "We are aware of a number of long term problems with some council tenants.

"We do liaise with the council on a regular, sometimes daily basis and we treat the problems as top priority.

"We would urge anybody who has had any problems of this sort to contact us."

The police have a telephone number for people suffering from racial harassment which is 01254 353638.

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