AN expert in handling international disasters is appealing to people in the North-East not to give way to panic in the wake of the London bombings.

Ken Rach, a disaster victim identification senior sergeant with Queensland Police, said: "Most of the anti-terrorism measures will be well in place, but one of the things I would like to get across is that there is going to be an enormous swell of panic from the public.

"Many people will have loved-ones in the area. There will be a lot of concern about what they are going through and where they are - whether they are safe or not."

The Australian was one of a number of speakers who shared their experience and knowledge of dealing with disasters, such as the Bali and Madrid bombings, the Australian Palace Youth Hostel fire and the Indian Ocean Tsunami, at a conference organised by the University of Teesside's Centre for Forensic Investigation, in Middlesbrough.

He said: "One of the most important things to try to do is not to panic, but wait for information to come through, from the media and police.

"And to people stuck in the inner city area, I would say: If you are able to, contact your loved-ones to re-assure them."

However, Sgt Rach warned people not to overload the mobile telephone networks and possibly obstruct the emergency services in their work.

He said: "Unfortunately, there is a tendency to overload the mobile phone system. The police are going to be relying fairly heavily on mobile phones.

"I don't know how we can get across to the public how not to try and overload the system, but to allow the police and emergency services to do their jobs.''