Yet the Lebanese capital was this week hailed as the hottest tourist destination in the world after years of rebuilding.

Few people would compare it to the parish town of Penwortham on the south bank of the River Ribble.

But, the town's mayor has been fending off stinging criticism after choosing to compare part of leafy Penwortham with Beirut – the mid 80s version, not the 2009 tourist playground – on live radio.

Coun Jim Hothersall was invited onto Jeremy Vine's lunchtime show on BBC Radio 2 to talk about unruly carol singers demanding money on his doorstep when he said anti-social problems are so bad in one part of the town that teenage yobs threatened to kill him when he demanded they get down from a school roof.

He told Mr Vine: "They are teenagers from a renowned area in Penwortham. I have got to stress Penwortham is a super place to live but there is a particular ward where there is a particular problem and they are instantly recognisable.

"In fact, the local ward councillor refers to the area as Beirut." He said the area is Kingsfold.

He later told the Lancashire Evening Post: "I regret mentioning Kingsfold but Jeremy Vine put me on the spot and I didn't think quickly enough, but I did try to make it clear not everyone can be tarred with the same brush.

"I regret using the term 'Beirut' – it wasn't me who originally used the reference. I was merely quoting somebody. I apologise unreservedly to those people who have taken offence. From a personal point, I perceive a youth problem having been threatened with death."

Coun Hothersall said that youths believed to be from the Kingsfold Estate had been intimidating residents and causing problems – with one even threatening to "shoot" him when he ordered another down from the roof of Middleforth CE Primary School.

Kingsfold Methodist Church minister Reverend Paul Davis said of the mayor's on-air comments: "This is not something we would identify with in that community. We think an awful lot of work has been done in Kingsfold recently and most of our young people have somewhere now to go.

"I think it is not the most positive of comments when people have been working really hard."

South Ribble Labour group leader Coun Matthew Tomlinson added: "I think to say that about any part of South Ribble is outrageous."

But others agreed with Coun Hothersall.

A worker at the Black Bull Inn in Pope Lane said: "I'm born and bred here and people are sick of it. The teenagers walk around on the streets in their hoods and people are intimidated.

"They are fed up of it - he is right and a lot of us agree with it. There should be more CCTV."

>> Vote in our latest web poll

Music, cinema, theatre, comedy - searchable events listings here