The community has reacted in shock after a man was fatally shot in Oswaldwtistle.

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man was shot in the chest at a house on Barnard Close around 8.25pm on Wednesday night.

The 32-year-old wounded man was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital but was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.

One resident on Barnard Close said: “I was out when it happened but when I came home there was loads of police and blue flashing lights.

“I couldn’t believe it when I found out what happened. We are really shocked.

“It’s a quiet family area round here with a school nearby and you don’t expect something like this to happen.”

Another resident on Conway Drive said: “It beggars belief. This year in Oswaldtwistle we’ve already had a drive-by shooting, armed robberies at the Spar and Bargain Booze and now this.

“Why is it all happening in Oswaldtwistle? It’s getting really bad around here.

The scene in Barnard Close, Oswaldtwistle

“It’s very sad and tragic what happened.”

Oswaldtwistle county councillor Peter Britcliffe said: “It’s a shocking and dreadful incident. What can you do about something like this, it’s not something that’s supposed to happen.

“You hear about these things happening on the television but actually you don’t expect it to happen so close to home, and in this extreme.

“We must hope this is an isolated incident.

“It’s certainly the most serous thing I have known to happen in Oswaldtwistle in all the years I have been a member of the council, and it will certainly shock people throughout the town.

“There will be a sense of shock, that this happened in a close-knit community like Oswaldtwistle and it will reverberate.”

Hyndburn council leader Councillor Miles Parkinson said: "It is shocking news, of course the police and the appropriate bodies will be doing their investigation into the matter at this time and they will be able to give more detail of how this terrible thing came to happen.

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"It's reprehensible what has happened, and this will have caused heartache for the family who has lost this gentleman, and also for the family of the teenager."

Detectives from Lancashire Police say they are treating the shooting as an isolated incident and there is no threat to the wider community, although extra officers have been deployed to the area.

Immanuel ward councillor Judith Addison said: “It’s a very residential are round there, it’s a very well established nice estate. It’s certainly not the sort of area where you would expect shootings.

“It will be a huge shock I imagine, a crime of that kind in Ossy, which is one of the last areas that you would imagine something like that to happen.”

Detective Inspector Pete Danby said their thoughts are with the man’s family at this ‘incredibly sad and difficult time’, and they are being supported by specially trained officers.

Photo credit: Joel Goodman

A Lancashire Police spokesman added: “Detectives have launched a murder investigation following the shooting of a man in Accrington. We were called at around 8.25pm this evening, Wednesday, October 25, to the report that a man, 32, had suffered a single shot wound to his chest after a firearm had been discharged from an address on Barnard Close.

“He was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital where he sadly died a short time later.”

The force spokesman added: “A 14-year-old boy from Accrington has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in police custody.”