People in the North East urged to 'report anything suspicious' this Christmas
Large numbers of people are expected to visit the region
We are being encouraged to 'report anything that doesn't seem right' this Christmas across the North East.
It is as large numbers of people are expected to visit the region over the festive period.
Detective Superintendent Matthew Davison, from the North East Counter Terrorism Police, said: "There's no intelligence to suggest that there's a specific terrorist attack that's going to take place here in the North or anywhere else in the UK, but we've got to remind ourselves that the threat level is still at substantial, which means a terrorist attack is still likely and so we've really got to be careful and vigilant.
"We need people to be alert. If they see something that's suspicious or something that doesn't look or feel right then we need them to be confident to report it. They're certainly never wasting our time, they could be preventing terrorism and they could be saving lives.
"More than 20 percent of the information that we receive in counter terrorism policing from the public turns out, when we investigate it, to be relevant to actual terrorist activity, so never think you're wasting our time. Always have the confidence to report to us because you could be saving lives.
"Because it's Christmas, people will be buying and taking photographs of all sorts of different things, that's perfectly normal. If something doesn't just feel right, if something feels out of place, if something concerns you then don't hesitate in contacting us. You're never wasting our time."