These are the latest ECHO headlines this morning.
Police officer hit by van as men leave him lying in the road seriously injured
A police officer was hit by a van and left lying in the road with serious injuries after picking up a bag in St Helens.
Emergency services were called to Hewitt Avenue shortly after 8pm on Tuesday night after a backpack filled with cannabis was found in the street. While the officer was collecting the bag, he approached a white Ford Transit van with a number of people inside.
The van was then driven at the officer before hitting him and leaving the scene. The officer was seriously injured in the hit and run.
READ MORE: Walls blown apart and sofa falls out of home after flat explosion
According to Merseyside Police, the officer suffered injuries to his shoulder, right arm and right leg. He was taken to hospital for treatment.
A short time after the incident, two men were seen running from a vehicle and into a field near East Lancs Road. They had reportedly dropped a bag on the way.
Officers arrested the men a short time later and found a bag on Ecclesfield Road. The men, from Rochdale, were arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and taken into custody to be questioned.
Read more here.
Explosion damage to Skelmersdale flats as walls blown apart and sofa falls out of home
A block of flats was blown apart after an explosion in Skelmersdale.
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, the North West Ambulance Service, and Lancashire Police rushed to Tanfields in Skelmersdale after receiving a call at around 6pm following an explosion at a property. Once at the scene emergency services found a block of flats completely blown apart.
Pictures sent to the ECHO show the back of the flats, and you can see a fridge freezer hanging from the wreckage along with a two seater couch. Five people were inside the flats when the explosion occurred.
Read more Live updates as block of flats explode and emergency services rush to scene
Three of those were rushed to hospital as a precaution. Nobody is believed to have been seriously injured in the incident. Lancashire Council, the fire service and police are working together to assess the damage and see how many properties need to be evacuated.
Read the full story here.
Dealers moved across country to sell cocaine and heroin from addicts' flat
Two men from Merseyside travelled 270 miles south in a county lines operation that saw them cuckooing two drug addicts and using their flat to distribute class A drugs.
A lockdown police raid at a flat in Torquay uncovered a county lines drug operation involving two Merseyside men Harry Beardsmore and Brandon Murray who were using a flat as a base where they could package and sell heroin and cocaine. The legal tenants of the flat were drug addicts who lived in the bedroom while the two men slept in the living room with more than 20g of cocaine and heroin as well as £1,500 in cash being recovered.
READ MORE: Parents take kids to school as officers swoop in morning drug arrest
Beardsmore, 21, has been jailed for four and a half years at Exeter Crown Court after he was convicted of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and possession of criminal property. Murray is to be sentenced at a later date, Devon Live reports.
Prosecutor Mr Joss Ticehurst said the offences happened during lockdown on June 22, 2020. Police saw a drug deal taking place in an area close to the flats. The man involved, Murray, was traced back to the flat. When police went inside they found Beardsmore in the living area of the flat and the tenants in the bedroom.
Read the full story here.
