Colchester has been named one of Britain's "hardest" towns and cities.

The historic borough mixes it with the likes of Glasgow and Belfast in a top ten compiled by lads' magazine Front.

The 11-page list of the nation's toughest manors puts the former Roman capital at number eight - ahead of both Hull and the London borough of Haringey.

It pours scorn on statistics that show the town is one of the country's safest.

It claims that instead of being twinned with Avignon, France, Colchester should be paired with Agincourt - scene of one of history's bloodiest Anglo-French battles.

The self-proclaimed "non-scientific" guide declares: "These days it is home to the 16 Air Assault Brigade, which includes three battalions of Paras - so, as small towns go, it ranks pretty high in the concentrated population of trained killers' league."

In a parting shot, it points out that typing "Colchester missing teeth" into Google brings up more than 50,000 hits.

A Colchester police spokesman today dismissed Front's findings.

"This may be seen as entertaining and amusing but nothing more than that," he said.

"It is a completely subjective piece and is in no way based on any facts or statistics, whereas Colchester's claim to be one of the safest towns in the country is based on an independent survey."