THE story of an underworld gang culture in Lancaster has been revealed in a hard-hitting new book, Young Guns.

The author, reformed drug-dealer Steve Hackman, devotes an entire chapter of his expose about Britain’s street gangs to the city and neighbouring Morecambe.

Mr Hackman’s Lancaster revelations are based on a figure known as ‘Slasher’, a member of the 902 Crew from the Ryelands estate.

Slasher, who was involved in crime from the age of seven, became a teenage alcoholic and drug addict.

His first act of violence was committed at a Carnforth nightclub when he stabbed a man in the neck with a broken glass.

Mr Hackman - not his real name - says he met Slasher at Wolds Prison, East Yorkshire.

Mr Hackman said he wrote the book because he was surprised about the level of gang crime in Britain and he wanted more people to know about it.

He said: “You imagine it’s only in places like Birmingham, Manchester and London, but when I was in prison I regularly heard people from fairly mundane places talking about guns and gangs."

● Young Guns: Inside the Violent World of Britain’s Street Gangs is out now and is available from most bookshops, priced £7.99.