Police reveal nature of Westerhope incident which caused local football panic

Northumbria Police has released a statement following an incident in Westerhope which saw officers called to the area west of Newcastle city centre.

The situation reportedly started with a road collision with a Northumbria Police spokesperson saying: “At around 3.45pm on Sunday, June 25 police received a report of a disturbance on West Denton Way in Newcastle.

“Officers attended the scene where it was reported that two cars had been involved in a collision on the street. Following this, a group of males from the vehicles involved were understood to have made threats to each other.

“They have then left the area before police arrival. Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances surrounding the report, and locate those involved. While enquiries are at an early stage, it is believed that those involved are known to each other and there was no wider risk to the public.

“Anyone with information should contact police using the ‘Tell Us Something’ page of our website or call 101 quoting reference number NP-20230625-0843.”

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The situation is understood to have caused panic at a local football tournament hosted by West Denton Juniors Football Club. Since the event police have confirmed no one one the site of the tournament was at risk of harm and any worry was caused by miscommunication of what was happening rather than an extension of the situation nearby.

In a social media statement the club said: “It has been brought to our attention that there is some rumours going around about events that took place at todays tournament. Contrary to the rumours and various Facebook posts, nothing actually occurred on the fields itself. There was an incident about 100 yards further down West Denton Way.

“The incident didn’t happen on the field or escalate onto the field but due to some early shouts that mistakenly lead people to believe it was an issue on the field, panic ensued. After a short period of downtime our tournament was able to continue and our thanks go to all the teams involved. We hope that everyone that was misinformed and unfortunately left early have not suffered emotionally from the rumours and aside from the incident still had an enjoyable day.”