DISGUSTED residents were faced with the sight of raw sewage running through their gardens when drains overflowed in heavy rain.

Gallons of sewage flowed down Wheat Street and on to Blackburn Road, Accrington, on Saturday morning.

Wheat Street residents had to put up with the sewage flowing through their gardens and driveways and kept their children indoors for safety.

Mark Walmsley, 43, lives on Wheat Street with his wife and two children, aged 10 and eight.

He said: "It was disgusting and a complete health hazard. At one point there was sewage flowing like a river down the street.

The whole area stinks. I have tried to wash it away but it was still on the roads for most of the day.

"Blackburn Road is busy and there were so many people who were being forced to walk or drive through the mess.

"I couldn't let my children play out in the street."

A United Utilities workman was able to clear the mess by Saturday afternoon, around eight hours after the sewage had first overflowed.

Mark Donaghy, from the company, said: "It looks like the sheer amount of rain that fell in such a short period of time led to the sewer being backed up.

"The sewer became so full that sewage began to spill out of the drains on to the road. It is unusual for this to happen but we managed to get an engineer down there to clean it as soon as possible.

"We are investigating the cause of the flood and we hope to ensure that an incident like this does not happen again." He said that the problem was not reported to the utility company immediately and that was why there had been a delay in clearing the mess.