TWO schoolboys burned by exploding gunpowder today warned other youngsters: "Don't mess with fireworks".

Lee Cosgrove and David Ackers are recovering at home in Great Harwood after being released from the burns unit at The Royal Preston Hospital.

The 11-year-olds suffered burns to their hands and faces when caught in a blast from gunpowder they had tipped out of a large rocket.

David, of James Avenue, said : "We could have been blinded." And in a warning to other children he urged: "Don't mess with fireworks."

Lee, of Spenser Grove, has to go back to hospital on Thursday to have the dressings changed on his hands.

He said: "When you light fireworks don't go back. I won't go near them again unless it's a proper display." Lee said he and David had tipped gunpowder out of the firework on to the floor and two other boys had lit it.

When the gunpowder did not go off he and David went over to look and it exploded in their faces.

The boys say an older boy had climbed into the back garden of the Lidgett pub and found the rocket, which had hardly any fuse, in a crate.

They say the other boy could not light it and had thrown it into a bush where they retrieved it.

Licensee John Cotton said any fireworks the children had laid their hands on had not come from the pub.

He said young people had been throwing fireworks on land at the back of the pub and it was possible one had landed in the back yard.

Mr Cotton said he had discharged four fireworks on Thursday and next day disposed of the remains in a wheelie bin at the front of the pub.

Inspector John Pennington, of Great Harwood police, said the accident had not been reported to them.

"It is a cause for concern that two children ended up in hospital as a result of a firework, whatever the circumstances, and we will be contacting parents to clarify the facts."

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