THREE men from the North-East have been arrested by police in a crackdown on gang warfare in the Canary Islands.

Richard Cashman, 33, from Stockton, Michael Cotcher, 29, from Newcastle, and John Parkin, 48, also from Newcastle, were held with a Liverpool man on the sunshine island of Tenerife.

The four, described by police as security guards in the timeshare industry, are accused of affray and causing injury.

Last October, Cashman was shot and wounded by two unknown gunmen as he left his apartment.

The shooting was one of a series of violent incidents connected with the timeshare industry which has stunned the authorities in the brash resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island.

One police officer said: "There is gang warfare here and it's all about who controls timeshares."

In the last nine months, one Briton was so badly injured in a turf war incident that he lost an eye. Later, his alleged assailant was found hanging in a police cell.

The violence has continued to escalate. Last week two timeshare bosses were attacked and badly beaten. A further attempt was made to attack on of the injured men as he recuperated in a private room at a luxury clinic.

During several days of alleged tit-for-tat attacks, an office was damaged, a hotel was attacked and three company cars were burned out.

The spate of violent incidents has sparked outrage among the authorities in the Canary Islands, with Tenerife's leading newspaper La Opinion carrying the headline "The South Of The Island Is Burning".

Hundreds of British and other foreign visitors are accosted by timeshare touts every day, trying to lure them to champagne receptions at which high pressure salesmen move in.

Until fairly recently, the island of Tenerife with its dramatic volcanic backdrop was one of the most exclusive holiday destinations for British tourists.

However, the expanding tourist trade has seen the growth of a number of downmarket resorts, including Playa de las Americas, and an associated growth in timeshare villages.

The multi-million pound trade has proved a magnet for the criminal underworld, which has now muscled in on the lucrative industry.