A RADIO station has been unmasked as the culprit behind a set of mysterious handprints appearing on streets and pavements.

The white painted handprints were spotted by council workers in Darlington.

Last night, Teesside radio station TFM admitted that a team of volunteers were behind the prints, designed to promote a competition to win 'celebrity' weekends in New York.

But council chiefs failed to see the funny side and said they should have been warned about the stunt.

TFM said the handprints, which are water-based, had also been painted in Middlesbrough and Hartlepool and were intended to mimic those of Hollywood film stars.

Dawn Gibson, marketing manager at TFM, said: "We had teams of people out at the weekend.

"It is certainly not graffiti, it is just a bit of fun. We have been lucky with the nice warm weather as had it rained, they would have gone by Saturday afternoon."

A Darlington council spokeswoman said: "We can see now it is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it was a mystery at first.

"We would have welcomed some kind of communication to tell us of this and would not encourage other people to do the same without consulting with us first."