LITTLE Anthony Shankly was annoyed when his mum wouldn't let him help with her shopping - so he locked her out of the house.

The two-year-old was trapped inside the family home at Heys Close, Blackburn, for 45 minutes yesterday afternoon while firefighters struggled to gain entry.

The youngster sat and fed biscuits through the letterbox to officers while his mum, Marion Shankly, and grandma Jacqueline Shankly, of Exeter Street, Blackburn, waited anxiously outside. Marion, 31, said: "We were just bringing the shopping in. Anthony usually helps but I wouldn't let him carry a heavy bag so he closed the door on us.

"I talked to him and tried to get him to go into the kitchen to get my keys but he was having none of it. "We went round the back to see if we could get in that way, but we couldn't. So a neighbour called the fire brigade.

"It was embarassing but it was funny, too.''

The firefighters talked to the tot through the letterbox as they tried to get into the house. Eventually they got through an upstairs window.

They found Anthony downstairs happily munching biscuits.

Marion, who has three other children, George, 11, Jacqueline, ten, and seven-year-old Steven, was relieved to find her son was all right.

She said: "You can't shout at a two-year-old for doing it ,but it could have been dangerous.''

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