Another property rammed in Middlesbrough amid fears of 'gangland war' following fatal A66 wrong-way crash
Another house in Middlesbrough has been rammed amid the fallout from a fatal car crash on the A66 over the weekend.
A vehicle has crashed into a wall outside a house near Middlesbrough, minutes away from the scenes of two fatal incidents in less than a week.
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Police are investigating the damage at a residential property in South Bank, which is believed to have happened in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The house is close to the locations of a crash on the A66 which killed seven people - including two police officers - on Saturday, and a house fire in Grangetown on Wednesday, where a seven-year-old girl and her aunt died.
Cleveland Police said it has not been confirmed whether there is any link with the latest incident.
Local policing Superintendent Emily Harrison said: “The property was empty at the time and we have not currently received any reports of any injuries.
“Officers are conducting inquiries to establish the circumstances surrounding this incident.
“Our investigation is in its early stages and it has not yet been confirmed whether this incident is linked to wider organised crime.”
Five passengers in the car - Michael Robert Cahill, Jacob Matusiak, both 23, Theo Rae, 17, Cole Robert Worthy, 16, and Makai Saddington, 18 - all died at the scene.
PC Matthew Blades, 37, a husband and father-of-two, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were also killed when a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough collided with their marked armed response vehicle that was going in the right direction.
Officers had aborted the pursuit of a car believed to be using cloned plates seconds before it crashed into a different police vehicle on the A66 near Middlesbrough, killing seven people, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said.
Following an analysis of footage, the police watchdog said in an update that the pursuit lasted just under seven minutes before the Passat travelled onto the A66 "against the flow of traffic".
It was at this point the pursuit was "aborted by officers and they continued to travel on the correct side of the carriageway", the IOPC said.
The watchdog continued that approximately 10 seconds after the pursuit ended, the Passat collided with another police vehicle which was not involved in the chase, but in the area to assist in a search for the Passat "believed to be using cloned plates that had activated an ANPR camera."A spokesperson for Cleveland Police said on Sunday that the families of all those who lost their lives are being supported by specialist officers.