A BLACKBURN girl who became the youngest female in the UK to be disarmed using a police Taser has admitted three charges in court - including making threats to kill.

The 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named, by order of a court, admitted charges of making a threat to kill, false imprisonment and having an offensive weapon - a knife, when she appeared at Preston Crown Court yesterday.

The offences were committed in the King Street area of Blackburn on August 27 when the girl was seen to take Edward Sweeney hostage and then threatened to slit his throat with what police described as a "large kitchen knife".

At the time witnesses to the incident outside Blackburn Service Station said they saw the girl grab the man and push him to the floor.

They reported seeing the "distressed" female holding a knife to man's throat - threatening that she would kill him.

She was then seen sitting on the pavement sharpening the knife on the edge of the kerb, one man claimed.

Police surrounded the girl and closed the road but negotiation attempts to get her to drop the knife were unsuccessful.

Officers from the Specialist Armed Response Unit said they took the decision to deploy the Taser when situation became critical and the girl said she was going to stab the man.

The offender is known to the police and had been reported as missing from local authority care at the time of the alleged attack. Her not guilty plea to assaulting him, occasioning him actual bodily harm, was accepted by the prosecution.

Defence barrister Mark Stuart asked for a pre-sentence report to be compiled by the probation service before sentencing takes place.

The case was adjourned to October and the girl was remanded to secure accommodation.