POLICE are investigating claims that a neo-Nazi terror group is operating out of a converted lock-up in Howley.

Anti-fascism charity Hope Not Hate has claimed that banned extreme-right group National Action is using a converted warehouse off Wellington Street as a training camp for an ‘imminent race war’.

According to the charity the group trains at the 'nondescript' site, which is surrounded by houses and businesses, using knives and baseball bats with members hospitalised on at least one occasion.

National Action hosts fight clubs midweek and on weekends at its Howley head office, claims Hope Not Hate, with activists from as far away as Scotland and London visiting the secret gym.

Hope Not Hate says that a 33-year-old warehouse worker from Woolston, who it claims ‘obsesses about terrorist groups’ such as ISIS and lives with his parents, has ‘managed to stay out of the limelight’ in order to rebuild the group since it was banned by Parliament under the Terrorism Act in December last year.

A spokesman for Hope Not Hate said: “Despite not knowing the location of their head office, all remaining members of National Action are financially contributing to the £4,560 per annum it costs to rent their secret bunker, as well as the cost of refurbishing and turning the warehouse into a gym with an office.

“According to sources inside National Action and neighbours of the rather nondescript looking warehouse, up to a dozen National Action members from across the country regularly train inside the warehouse using knives and baseball bats.

“Although the group has purchased crash mats and boxing gloves for their gym, there is no protective headgear for their midweek and weekend fight clubs.

“On at least one occasion, members have been ferried to hospital to deal with injuries sustained while put through their paces in preparation for the race war that leaders of the group feel is imminent.”

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said that the force was investigating the claims made by Hope Not Hate.