ALMOST 700 people in Blackburn are having extramarital affairs, according to new research.

The town has 696 people having or actively seeking affairs using dating website Illicit Encounters, according to data released by the website.

This makes Blackburn the 80th most adulterous town in the UK.

In Burnley there are 480 people having affairs, ranking the town in 82nd place The dating site has more than 880,000 registered users and has seen a 40 per cent surge in registrations in the last five years, which it puts down to couples not being able to divorce due economic pressures and rising house prices.