Police and trading standards officers seized up to 200 illegal video nasties in an early-morning raid on a house in York today.

In a joint operation, they swooped on a property in the north of the city where they found dozens of violent videos.

"Snuff" titles containing gruesome real death scenes, violence and human cannibalism were found, as well as many unclassified horror films.

Trading Standards were led to the address in the Huntington Road area of the city after colleagues in East Sussex spotted an advert in a magazine.

A test purchase was made and the videos were passed on to officers in York.

Among those on offer were copies of videos unclassified for distribution in the UK, such as Clockwork Orange, and more horrific titles including Guts of a Virgin, New York Ripper and Cannibal Ferox.

The maximum fines for distributing unclassified videos in Britain is £2,000 per video.

Colin Rumford, of the City of York Trading Standards said: "Many of the films contain scenes of appalling violence including torture and films of actual death.''

Trading standards officers were today interviewing the man believed to be supplying the videos.

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