David Higgerson was the reporter on the scene for the Lancashire Telegraph. Here he gives his memories of covering the Burnley riots.

POLICE lines dividing streets in two, a car blazing in the middle of a road having being apparently petrol bombed, a pub wrecked after a gang torched it.

Events you read about from Northern Ireland or further afield, not ones you expect to be reporting about close to the centre of Burnley.

After clashes in Oldham, it had been feared in East Lancashire.

But when it happened, it came as a surprise, shattering the calm of what had appeared to be just another early summer weekend.

The authorities had been slow to release information about events to the media, but the calls to the Lancashire Telegraph made it clear something was very wrong.

The steady stream of police vehicles on the M65 was the first clue, and with rumours of a huge standoff beckoning in the town centre, the town’s pedestrianised heart was awash with officers in high-visibility jackets.

It soon became clear events of the night would focus on the Duke Bar area.

Somehow, photographer John Napier and I managed to drive through one of the police lines and we found ourselves yards from the Duke of York pub late on Sunday evening.

Despite the chaos around us, the streets illuminated by dancing police lights had a strange calm about them.

Such events normally attract crowds at the police cordons.

The tension in the air meant the opposite was true in Burnley.

Knocking on doors led more often to people offering us someone to hide from ‘them’ than it did witnesses to anything which had happened.

Every now and again, small groups of people would run past saying ‘they’ were coming and telling us to find refuge.

Rumours and speculation became a currency which could easily have fanned the flames.

It was too easy to link what had begun as a series of random events into something more co-ordinated and planned.

Many people thought they knew who to blame. But those who had actually seen what had happened were few and far between.

Town leaders had been quick to dismiss the idea of ‘an Oldham’ happening in Burnley or Blackburn.

Their faces the next day belied the fact their perception of race relations was far removed from their perception of those they served across the town.

‘Would Blackburn be next?’ was the question that was repeatedly asked.

Sorting the facts from rumours and misinterpretation was a huge challenge.

For the next three or four nights, we heard all sorts of stories.

In one case, we were told a group of police officers were throwing stones at children.

They weren’t – they were playing cricket with them.

Either way, Burnley was on the map – for all the wrong reasons.