A WOMAN has told how she called the emergency services to the scene of a car fire in a village close to where a shop was reported to have been raided.

Emma Birch was driving home when she saw the car in the village of Ingleton, Teesdale, around midnight on Tuesday.

A shop in the nearby village of Gainford was sealed off by police as an investigation into an incident that happened there on the same evening got underway.

"It was late Tuesday evening when my friends and I were driving back from Bishop Auckland when we saw a fire in the distance," Emma said. 

"We kept driving and realised that it was a car on fire so we instantly dialled 999 and kept well away from it until the police came.

"Once the police turned up they told us that the car had been involved in another incident close by. The fire brigade turned up a few minutes later and a short while after there was also a police helicopter out, obviously searching for whoever was involved.

"Once the fire had been put out we then had to take the long route back to Gainford through Staindrop.

"Once we were back in Gainford we then noticed a police car outside the corner shop which looked as though it had been broken into. The door was completely off and glass everywhere.

"After an eventful night my friends and I went home. There are some horrible people out there."