'People are living in terror' Middlesbrough MP slams escalating unrest following A66 crash

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200 officers have been drafted in to help police investigate the deaths of nine people over the last six days.

Seven people were killed in a crash on the A66 on Saturday - while a woman and child died in a house fire on Wednesday. A vehicle also crashed into a wall outside a house minutes away from the scenes of the crash.

So far, police have not ruled out a link between the two and wider organised crime.

Now, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough Andy McDonald has told LBC, has called the events of last week as a "whole series of utterly appalling acts of wanton criminality".

He told Tom Swarbrick: "Most people in Middlesbrough are going about their daily lives in peace without any difficulties.

"There are concentrated areas within our wider community that are suffering the most horrendous issues. I said it was terrorism because people are living in terror."

Mr McDonald said what the occupants of the car did was an "absolute outrage".

"What I do know is that their families will now be wishing they were not in that blasted car. They'll be mourning the loss of their loved ones, and there's a humanity here.

"But my concern is about the families of those police officers. They went to work to serve us and protect us and they didn't come home. And that's an absolute abomination.

"So the acts of these people have got to be absolutely condemned, but we have to have a serious conversation about how we start to address it. And that's what's absent at the moment."

Read More: Hundreds of extra police officers deployed to Middlesbrough after stabbing, A66 crash and house fire - leaving nine dead

Read More: Man stabbed at address close to A66 wrong-way crash and fatal house fire

Mr McDonald added he was "eternally grateful" for the support provided for the extra 200 police officers drafted in.

"But that is a short-term measure. We have got to commit to the recruitment of those additional officers to be Cleveland police officers.

"If that requires short-term secondment from forces whilst we recruit, then so be it.

"I know that Andy Burnham and Lou Haig, amongst others, are taking this enormously seriously, and I'm grateful for the support that our Prime Minister has indicated that is on its way to us."

He added there was an "underlying cause" that attracts young men in their teenage years who are yet to be fully formed neurologically.

"They're getting pulled into this appalling set of behaviours and engaging in this performative criminality without any regard for the consequences."

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 Blades, 37, a husband and father-of-two, and PC Clough, 38, were also killed when a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 collided with their marked armed response vehicle that was going in the right direction.

Valentina Foster, seven, and Natalie McDonald, 34, died in the blaze, in which two men, aged 23 and 31, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Ms McDonald’s brother has said she was not associated with gangs.

Remnants of fireworks, smoke canisters and balloons were scattered around a field where cars were torched on Thursday night at a balloon release for one of the men who died in the VW Passat.

Scorch marks were visible in the field where people gathered to remember Michael Cahill, 23, at Haswell, County Durham, some 20 miles north of the scene of the crash near Middlesbrough.

Cars that were torched have since been removed but a section of a front bumper remained in place.