A PREGNANT woman was challenged to a fight after confronting youths who had climbed into her back garden, police said.

It is thought the youths had been to Middlesbrough Sports Village and began jumping over fences into the rear gardens of neighbouring houses.

The woman, who is heavily pregnant with twins, politely asked the group, all in their early teens, what they were doing and was told they had lost a football.

She was then verbally abused and challenged to a fight in nearby Stewart Park.

Police said the incident at about 8pm on Friday evening left the woman distressed and it was being treated as a public order offence.