Cars have been set on fire in a field during a memorial event believed to be for Michael Robert Cahill, 23, who died in the A66 crash, as gang violence erupts across Middlesbrough this evening.
Police are responding to multiple incidents across Teesside tonight as violence and criminal activity intensifies in the area, linked to criminal gangs. Video footage circulated online shows several cars ablaze in a field as balloons are released at the memorial service.
Nine Deaths in Five Days
The town is in the grip of terror over a gangland turf war that has taken nine lives in five days, following the deaths of seven people, including two police officers, in a crash on the A66 at the weekend.
Officers have been spotted attending numerous incidents throughout the area after 200 police, including armed response teams, were drafted in from other regions to assist Cleveland Police.
House Fire Arrests
It comes after two men were arrested on suspicion of murder after two people died in a house fire, including a child, police have confirmed. The blaze in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, broke out just before 05:30 BST and also left a 48-year-old woman in hospital in a critical condition, alongside a further three people who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Cleveland Police said the two victims were yet to be formally identified.
