A TOURIST from Australia woke up to find a wedding party punch-up spilling into his hotel bedroom.

Darwen-born Frank Haworth, from Brisbane, said his sleep was disrupted and he feared he would become embroiled in a fight when two men burst into his room as he slept at the Bear Hotel, Craven's Brow, Lower Darwen, just before 2am.

He ejected the intruders with the help of his son Grant, 30, who was sharing the room.

"They crashed through the door and they were punching hell out of each other," said Mr Haworth, who is staying in East Lancashire for 10 weeks to visit his elderly mother.

"We both dived out of the way, then managed to push them both outside. We could hear a lot of banging and crashing and things breaking in the corridor outside, and we both put our backs against the door to stop them coming back in."

He added: "We had gone to bed early because I was taking part in the Darwen Triathlon the following day.

"We never expected anything like that." Hotel manager William Pearce admitted an incident took place but said it was being blown up out of all proportion.

He has since arranged a refund on the grounds that the guests had been disturbed during their stay.

He put the incident down to "high spirits" and said two men had been messing around in the hallway when they accidentally banged against Mr Haworth's door.

He added: "It was a delightful night.

"There was some noise and high spirits but it was nothing unusual for a wedding party and the people responsible apologised.

"The police arrived and were satisfied that everything was okay. Everybody left very happy."

Police confirmed that they attended the hotel shortly before 2am after a report of trouble but no arrests were made.

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