WORSHIPPERS at a Congresbury church had a lucky escape after hooligans threw an industrial-sized firework into the building while members of the congregation were inside.

Members of the village's Methodist church were holding a fellowship meeting on Friday night when they heard a loud explosion in the porch.

Acrid smoke started to pour from the building into the church, leaving those inside terrified and wondering what had happened.

When the noise and smoke died down, senior steward Ken Hill went to investigate and found the burnt out firework.

Mr Hill, a pensioner, said: "There were about a dozen of us inside the church and we were just having a cup of tea after the meeting when we heard this loud bang.

"We were all very startled and wondered what on earth was going on.

"We then saw that the porch was filling with smoke and saw lots of bright sparks of light.

"Once the noise had stopped we went to investigate and saw the porch was full of smoke and there was a large firework on the floor.

"It is very fortunate that the church doors were shut and the firework stayed in the porch.

"If it had got into the church itself, the whole situation could have been much more serious and someone could have been hurt."

The 21in firework was a Roman candle Dancing Rainbow combination display firework which is usually only used in organised displays and not on sale to the general public.

It says on the instructions that whoever lights it should stand at least 25 metres away from it and that it should be buried six inches into the ground.

Mr Hill, who lives in the village, added:

"We were fortunate in the fact that it didn't catch the porch on fire as we have a lot of paper notices that could have set alight.

Police are appealing for anyone who may have seen the incident or who was responsible for throwing the firework to contact them.

A spokesman for Clevedon Police said: "We are very keen to trace the person responsible for this attack.

"To target a church is bad enough, but the fact that there were people inside makes the incident far worse.

"This is an industrial type firework and if it had got into the building someone could have been very seriously injured."

Anyone with information should call Clevedon Police Station on 0845 4567000.