As with all drug raids, the element of surprise was essential.

It was 6.30am when half a dozen policemen with sledgehammers smashed the window of the red-brick terrace house and piled in to find their target.

Instead of junkies crazed on crack, however, they found school dinner lady Kathleen Oldham sitting in her dressing-gown enjoying an early-morning cup of tea.

At that point they realised they had blundered.

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"Sorry, love, wrong house", they said and immediately departed leaving a female colleague behind to make a more effusive apology.

Miss Oldham was presented with a bouquet of flowers and workmen arrived promptly to repair her front window.

Yesterday Greater Manchester Police issued a public apology to the 58-year-old dinner lady over the bungled raid on her home in Bolton.

"As part of an ongoing operation to target drug-related crime, officers entered the wrong house," said a spokesman.

"Officers will be reviewing what went wrong in order to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Miss Oldham's was one of a number of addresses targeted by police in a series of raids.

A neighbour, who asked not be named, said: "It was about half past six and I was up with my son. I heard voices and I was half asleep so I came to the window to have a look.

"Then I heard the smashing glass and I saw the riot van with all the officers in it."

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