A SELBY man has been charged with racially aggravated harassment and is due in court next month.

The 60-year-old man has been charged with racially/ religiously aggravated harassment and using threatening/ abusive words/ behaviour or disorderly behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. 

His arrest on Friday afternoon sparked the evacuation of neighbouring homes when police searching his flat found what they thought were hazardous materials.

Neighbours said they saw emergency services at the Cockret Court flats in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Police later said the materials had been deemed not to be hazardous, and residents were allowed back in their homes.