A pensioner was left terrified when police officers burst through his front door in the dead of night and searched his home.

Arthritis sufferer Alan Nell, 69, was woken at 1am and forced to sit while two officers combed every inch of his ground-floor flat.

He was given no explanation as to why they were there and the pair left him shaking with fear.

Mr Nell was asleep in the bedroom of his home on Saturday morning, when he was woken by banging and shouting at his front door.

He said: "I could see the shadows of two big men through the door.

"I asked who it was and they just said: "Open the door, or we'll kick it in".

"I told them I wasn't going to open the door and I was going to call the police.

"One of the men said: 'We are the police', and again repeated his threats to me to open the door or he would kick it in.

"I was terrified, confused, I was just standing there shaking. I didn't know what to do."

Mr Nell said he was pushed aside while the pair searched every room of his home in Maypole Close, Southwick, Sunderland.

One of the uniformed officers spoke on a radio and then the pair left without any explanation. Mr Nell said: "They said nothing, They must have seen I was terrified. They didn't even say sorry."

Inspector Roy Dalby, from Sunderland's Gill Bridge police station, said: "I can confirm that two officers were called to the address after receiving a 999 call by a woman on a mobile phone who said someone was trying to kick in her front door.

"I cannot comment on what might have happened at his home."