Police hunting the killers of Wolverhampton couple Guiseppe and Caterina Massaro battered their way into the home of an elderly Birmingham man in a bungle over addresses.

Erdington pensioner Patrick Brogan said he was woken by the sound of splintering wood as police smashed through his front door at 6am on Monday.

But, after discovering the 75-year-old looked nothing like the man they were after, officers realised they had raided the wrong house.

Eyewitnesses said police were seen running towards a nearby property minutes later, where West Midlands Police confirmed a 30-year-old man was arrested.

Officers swooped on the properties on Erdington’s Lyndhurst Estate as part of the investigation into the brutal murders of Italian-born Guiseppe Massaro, aged 80, and his wife Caterina, aged 77.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said it was a “genuine mistake” by officers working on a “fast moving investigation” into the horrific double murder in Wolverhampton on Friday.

Mr Brogan, who lives alone, said: “I was asleep when I heard an almighty bang on the door. I was frightened.

“I shouted at them to stop and said I would open the door. But the police came through the door and I was nearly hit on the head.

“They told me to sit down and showed me a photograph of a man. But I didn’t look like him.

“It was very poor of them. There was no need for it. I’ve lived here for seven years and never had any police record or anything like that.”

Workmen were later called to Mr Brogan’s home to fit a temporary metal security door to his home.

A police spokesman said: “A major investigation is ongoing into the deaths of Guiseppe and Caterina Massaro and as part of this officers were seeking to arrest a man in the Erdington area.