Elaine Squires was in the shower at her home in Inkerman Street, Preston, when police used a battering ram to smash the door open.

Her terrified daughter Erin, 22, was downstairs using the computer when officers flooded into the house at around 11.50am on Friday last week.

Mrs Squires, a governor at the nearby Roebuck School in Inkerman Street, says her terrified daughter had to be restrained by officers as she tried to run outside.

It was only when Mrs Squires had been ordered out of her bathroom by police that the officers realised a mistake had been made.

Mrs Squires, who is disabled, said: "It was the most terrifying thing we have ever been through.

"We have noisy neighbours anyway and I was wondering why they were slamming the door so many times, then I just heard my daughter shout up, 'The police are here!'"

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Police demanded Mrs Squires, who was wrapped in just a towel, come out of the bathroom.

"Seconds later, the officers realised they had made a mistake.

"One of them handed me my dressing gown and in the meantime I could hear the sergeant shouting 'Out, out'," she said.

"Erin had told them our names and our address and they realised they had got the wrong house. Their excuse was there was no number on the door but there are door numbers a couple of doors down – can they not count?"

Mrs Squires says her daughter, a nursery nurse, is "still shaking" after the ordeal.

She added that it will cost her around £110 for an emergency fix on her front door, although she will be reimbursed for that by police.

A spokesman for Lancashire Constabulary said: "This was a genuine mistake and our neighbourhood policing team have spoken to the lady at length and we have given an unreserved apology.

"In this instance the warrant was intended for an adjacent property where drugs paraphernalia was recovered."

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