POLICE are taking action after gangs of up to 20 teenagers threatened staff and “caused chaos” in two fast food restaurants over the weekend.

Police in Consett say large groups of teenagers, including both boys and girls, threw around food and threatened staff in the town’s McDonald’s and KFC restaurants.

Officers are checking CCTV footage and have identified those responsible for disorder in McDonald’s, with a warning that several face being banned from the outlet.

The two popular family restaurants are about 100 yards away from each other on Consett’s retail park just outside the town centre.

Consett Neighbourhood Inspector Keith Wardle said: “There has been an increase in anti-social behaviour over holiday period, which escalated over the last week.

“It is probably been around the A-level results, which came out on Thursday, so there's potentially been some celebrations.

“There have been couple incidents in McDonald’s especially where staff have been threatened.

"We are looking to take positive and have identified some offences and people will be spoken to in relation to those."

Insp Wardle said there had been several incidents involving groups of up to 20 teenagers coming in and buying one drink between them and sitting and taking space up to use the restaurant's WiFi.

He said: "Members of staff were overwhelmed. The main incident was on Saturday night.

"The management asked a group to them to leave, because they have been disruptive and they have not been buying food.

"They have taken umbrage to that and there has been a dispute with management. In one instance there have been threats to cause damage to the restaurant.

"The individual has been identified to us will be spoken to in relation to it. Another half a dozen will be spoken to in conjunction with McDonald's and will be issued with banning notices."

He added: "McDonald's have a good excellent CCTV system and we work very closely with them as they have had problems in the past."

He said there were similar problems at KFC.