Twelve people have been arrested on suspicion of offences including being involved with organised crime as part of the investigation into events leading to a crash on the A66 which killed two police officers and five others.

Cleveland police said nine men and three women, aged between 19 and 61, had been arrested on suspicion of offences ranging from possession of a firearm to participating in the activities of an organised crime group.

The force said its officers had responded to reports of two cars were being driven dangerously on Saturday 22 August.

The Volkswagen Passat which collided with the vehicle of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough had earlier been sought in connection with a Volvo XC60 that was seen ramming properties in the Middlesbrough area.

Both vehicles had cloned number plates but were picked up by automated number plate recognition technology, the force said, and the Volvo XC60 had been traced and recovered in Middlesbrough.

Four of the five people in the Passat, including three teenagers, had previous convictions.

The force said in a statement: “At the current time, there is no evidence to indicate that filming of the activities that took place on Friday night and Saturday morning has taken place for the purposes of TikTok.”