Armed police have raided properties in the Middlesbrough area where a woman and her seven-year-old niece were killed in a suspicious house fire.
Officers armed with rifles were seen aiming their weapons towards homes on Burns Road, Grangetown in the early hours of today.
Witnesses said one person was arrested and a vehicle was seized.
The raid comes after a week of escalating violence thought to be linked to a postcode war between two factions of a local organised crime group, as well as a deadly motorway crash that killed two police officers and five youths.
The young men in the car were said to have been pursuing rival gang members shortly before driving the wrong way down the A66 and smashing into a police vehicle that PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough were in.
Michael Cahill, 23, Jakub Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, Theo Rae, 17, and Cole Worthy, 17, all died in the crash. Four of them had lengthy criminal records ranging from theft, harassment and assault to drug dealing and knife possession.
A fatal house fire also took place in the small area of Middlesbrough last Wednesday, killing Natalie McDonald, 34, and Valentina Foster, seven.
While the blaze is thought to be related to local gangs, it has not been linked directly with the car crash at this stage.
Armed police raided two homes in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, in the early hours of today following a week of violence
Officers were seen aiming their weapons through the doors of one home. Cleveland Police is yet to comment on the raids
Multiple police vehicles were parked in Burns Road in Grangetown, which has been rocked by violence in recent days
A 31-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of murder has since been released without charge.
A second man, 23-year-old Jaden Wright, is being questioned by police after appearing in court on Saturday charged with grievous bodily harm and strangulation in relation to an incident in Grange Farm Road on Tuesday, August 25.
Fires were seen in local fields after at least five cars were set alight at a balloon release in memory of one of the crash victims.
Anna Turley, the Labour MP for Redcar, who is also a Home Office minister, told BBC News: ‘Seeing illegal bikes and quad bikes rampaging, and fires and fireworks being set off only heightens people’s sense of fear and lawlessness.
‘While I understand people are grieving and upset, we cannot allow illegal activity to be excused and unchecked.’
PC Blades and PC Clough were remembered with a minute’s applause ahead of a match between Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, while PC Blades’ sons walked out as mascots with Manchester United yesterday.
Supporters also paid their respects at Seaton Carew’s game against FC Hartlepool. PC Blades had been a junior coach for both teams.
The home of Worthy’s father Gye was ram-raided just hours before the crash. The 39-year-old has no links to criminality.
PC Matthew Blades, 37, was killed when his police vehicle was struck by a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough
PC Tom Clough, 38, also died in the crash, which occurred around ten seconds after a police pursuit of the Volkswagen was called off
Valentina Foster, seven, and her aunt Natalie McDonald, 34, died in a house fire on Wednesday
The scene of devastation at the home in Grangetown where Ms McDonald and young Valentina died in a fire last week
It has also emerged that a rival gang rammed the home of Rae’s mother moments before the crash happened.
A series of subsequent ram-raids on homes across the area are thought to be linked to the incident.
Locals say the atmosphere in Grangetown is tense this week, with some afraid to leave their homes.
Allan Scott, a 78-year-old retired truck driver, traces much of the unrest back to drugs.
‘Drugs are the biggest culprit. It’s a way of life for them,’ he said. ‘Years ago, people would grass each other up to the police, but they don’t now.
‘People are too scared to go to the police. There is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.’
One woman, a carer, said: ‘The car crash, the fire, the stabbing, it’s too much.
‘I don’t go out at night. I am too afraid, and I am also scared for my family. There are break-ins, violence, drugs.
‘It’s gang warfare. It’s gangs and drugs and a mixture of everything. I come out during the day, but at 6pm I lock the doors and I don’t leave the house again.’
Makai Saddington, one of the five killed in the Volkswagen, posted videos on TikTok of himself being chased by police and was awaiting trial for racially abusing and assaulting officers
Jakub Matusiak, another occupant of the car that hit the officers, also posted videos of himself driving recklessly
Close friends Theo Rae, left, and Cole Robert Worthy both died in the crash on Saturday
Michael Robert Cahill was one of the five in the VW Passat
A home in the South Bank area of Middlesbrough was rammed by a car in the early hours of Thursday
Several cars were set ablaze by youths in a field near Haswell in County Durham on Thursday, purportedly during a balloon release for one of the crash victims
Another local added: ‘What’s gone on is just awful. It’s gang-related, and what happened to that little girl, who died in the fire, is just horrendous.
‘Where will this all end? I am worried now that things will escalate further, and there will be a full-blown riot.
‘Whatever the child’s family might have done, she didn’t deserve to die. It’s shocking, awful. There’s always been a problem with gangs in the area, but it’s largely hidden.
Police have been drafted in from across the country to back up the local force, which is one of the smallest in the country.
Around 200 extra officers have been deployed from other forces, according to Redcar and Cleveland borough council leader Alec Brown, while police also raided a property in nearby Thornaby on Thursday.
Reports suggest the town has been crying out for additional help in tackling violence for a number of years, with requests from the area’s police and crime commissioner for more funding from the Government falling on deaf ears.
Middlesbrough has a long history of deindustrialisation, and around half of its neighbourhoods rank among the most deprived in England.
The town has one of the highest crime rates in England, second only to central London, and in 2025-26, there were 21.7 homicides per million people, the highest figure recorded by any police force area in that reporting year.
However, the town’s mayor has robustly denied that it is ‘lawless’.
Chris Cooke said police were doing an ‘absolutely sterling job to round up as many people as possible’, and has claimed crime is on the wane.
The Home Office has since said the force will receive a 3.7 per cent uplift in its funding this year.
Officially, police have made a total of 24 arrests in recent days targeting the wider crime group, including seven more on Friday.
Cleveland Police is yet to make a public statement on the raids earlier this morning. The Daily Mail has approached the force for comment.
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