FIREFIGHTERS were called out following reports of a loud bang being heard across Radcliffe this evening.

Crews from Whitefield and Broughton attended the incident at Pioneer Mill in Milltown Street, Radcliffe, at about 6.30pm.

Staff at the mill and residents living nearby had reported being alarmed by the noise and feared that an explosion may have taken place at the mill.

However, firefighters arrived shortly after to find nothing more than a large pile of rubbish on fire at the rear of the mill.

They remained at the scene until 8pm while they extinguished the fire, which did not cause any damage to the mill itself.

People also took to Twitter to ask about the noise.

Manchester Fire initially tweeted to warn people in the area to keep their windows and doors shut.

It read: “Crews currently tackling a fire on Milltown Street in #Radcliffe - fire involving large quantity of rubbish on waste ground outside of Pioneer Mill. Keep windows/doors shut if you live nearby and try and avoid the area.”

However, they later followed this up with another tweet which read: “If you heard a loud bang – it’s nothing to worry about. Ff have it in hand”

Whitefield watch manager Karl Gibbons said: “It sounded like it might be involving the mill but was actually waste at the exterior.

“We used just a couple of host reels to extinguish it. We will follow this up by seeing what we can do to get the waste removed.”