POLICE swooped on two houses in Warndon, Worcester, today in a coordinated drugs bust after residents complained of being ‘petrified’ by things going on in the area.

Officers smashed down the door of one property in Woodmancote using a battering ram and found paraphernalia such as needles, foil and inhalers associated with heroin and crack cocaine use.

But extensive searches by police and sniffer dogs failed to uncover illegal substances, despite intelligence leading to a warrant under the misuse of drugs act.

Police simultaneously raided another Sanctuary Housing home in Woodmancote at 9.25am this morning, gaining entry through the unlocked front door, but again no drugs were discovered.

Sergeant Simon Hallam, of West Mercia Police, said: “We hoped for a more positive result in terms of the drugs found, but we are still confident that by working with housing teams we will get to the right resolution to keep local residents satisfied.

“The fact we have carried out this operation – acting on intelligence and information received – hopefully shows the local community that we are taking action.

“We want to reassure the people of Warndon that we are aware of ongoing issues and we are working to tackle and address the problems.”

One local resident, who asked not to be named, claimed that a series of incidents locally had left the community “absolutely petrified”.

The worried neighbour said: “It is an absolute nightmare – we don’t feel safe to go out and lots of people are frightened to death.

“There has been fighting, gangs with baseball bats, noise late at night and loads of visitors all the time. It is mayhem and it’s really worrying and unnerving.

“We are living in fear and it is not fair for decent people.

“This is a good neighbourhood and everybody gets on – but now residents are absolutely petrified.

“We are just grateful that the police are taking action and hope that they can get a positive result.”

Warndon safer neighbourhood team led the operation with support from officers from other teams.