@c5news: His mum called for the community to give him “the send-off he deserves”. Several cars were torched in the latest vigil for one of the joyriders killed in the A66 wrong-way crash last weekend as violence continues to spread across Middlesborough. The tribute on Thursday came as hundreds of extra police officers were drafted in to quell violence and as a local MP branded intimidation felt by residents' “terrorism”. Police have announced 19 arrests in less than a week following the crash that killed police officers, PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, and five young men - Cole Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak – many for organised crime. According to media reports, five cars were set ablaze before flares were fired, and ballons released in the air near Haswell, County Durham, for Cahill. Some of the vehicles were driven erratically around fields, before being torched. Former Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston said the town was “on its knees” as he warned the ongoing feuds between criminal gangs could escalate further. Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough & Thornaby East, told Times Radio that people were “not feeling safe and feeling trapped in their own homes”. “This is terrorism,” he added. Cahill’s mother had reportedly called for “bikes, jeeps, cars and quad bikes” to gather to give her son the “send-off he deserves”.  A wave of violence has spread across Teesside since the crash, including a suspicion house fire east of Middlesbrough, that claimed the lives of Valentina Foster, seven, and 34-year-old Natalie McDonald on Wednesday. #5news #middlesbrough #fire

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Friday 28 August 2026 12:27:17 GMT