ASYLUM seekers are no longer being sent to a North-East city after a man's murder raised fears for their safety, it emerged yesterday.

Following the murder of Iranian Peyman Bahmani in Sunderland last month, Northumbria Police have asked the Home Office not to send any more asylum seekers there until further notice.

The request was prompted by an increase in racial tension sparked by Mr Bahmani's death from a single stab wound during a confrontation in Peel Street, Hendon.

Other North-East Iranians and asylum seekers condemned the act and called for better police protection, and many took part in protest marches.

Joseph Rutherford, 22, and Gavin Gash, 27, both of Sunderland, have since been charged with violent disorder and racially aggravated assault, and Stephen Roberts, 18, from Edinburgh, has been charged with murder.

Chief Inspector John Brady, of Sunderland City area command, stressed that the measure was temporary and a review would be held shortly.

"I would like to reassure all residents we take reports of racial incidents very seriously, and we would encourage anyone with any problems to contact the police," he said.

The news comes as the latest figures reveal that since the Government's dispersal programme for asylum seekers began in April 2000, the National Asylum Support Service has received nearly 2,000 reports of racial incidents. Of these, as many as 100 - one in five of the total - are said to have come from Sunderland.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We have suspended dispersal to the Sunderland area at the request of the police, due to local tensions.

"The police are satisfied that asylum seekers supported by the National Asylum Support Service in Sunderland are safe, but no new asylum seekers will be dispersed there until the police advise that it is appropriate to do so."

Daoud Zaaroura, chief executive of the North of England Refugee Service, said he was disappointed by the news.

"It's outrageous to say that people from different cultures shouldn't go to a specific place in the UK," he said.

"Rather than stopping asylum seekers from coming to Sunderland, it raises the issue of what should be done."