A throng of balaclava-clad youths set off flares and fireworks on Monday afternoon to remember the five A66 'joyriders' who died when they smashed into a police car.The chaos came in stark contrast to a silent prayer vigil hosted in a nearby church to honour PC Tom Clough and PC Matthew Blades, who were also tragically killed in the crash.Friends and family of Jakub Matusiak, 23, decided to gather at a field in South Bank, Middlesborough, just yards from the scene of Saturday's catastrophic collision, caused by the gang hurtling the wrong way down the dual carriageway.What began as a balloon release descended into a confusion of smoke and noise when attendees lit up the sky with flares and rockets.A gang of around 20 masked youths on motorbikes and quad bikes roared around the field in honour of Matusiak, who himself had convictions for motoring offences.Footage showed dozens of flares being held aloft, filling the field with dense orange fog, as bikes revved their engines and blared their horns.Meanwhile, just down the road, locals mourning the lives of the two constables quietly filed into St John The Evangelist Church.Among them was Redcar’s Labour MP Anna Turley, who said: 'I thought it was really important to come together. I was really pleased that the church has opened themselves up for the community to come together, because it's such a devastating incident. Scores of people held orange flares aloft in a field in South Bank, Middlesborough, to mark the deaths of the five joyriders A group of masked bikers tore around the field and joined in with the pyrotechnics The memorial began as a balloon release but descended into noise and confusion The vigil to remember the two constables who lost their lives was a much more sober affair'The whole community here is reeling, and we've lost lives, particularly those lives of brave police officers who are out in action to keep us safe. It's a tragic incident.'Back at the joyriders' vigil, one female attendee in her 20s was indignant at the tone of the coverage of the deaths of the youths. She said: 'Jakub was a lovely, caring lad and he's somebody's son and somebody's brother, he's not some scumbag who should just be written off and forgotten.'It was an accident that those police officers died, they weren't trying to kill anyone and they lost their own lives but they've just been written off as if they don't matter. 'The number of people who have come out for Jakub today should show you that they do matter, they were loved and they will be missed.'The gathering took place on South Bank back field, only a few hundred yards from where the collision took place on the A66, ending seven lives.Cleveland Police attended but kept a low-key presence, a patrol car from the Matrix team - which the two constables worked in - was parked 500 yards away alongside a police van.Plenty of the residents of the surrounding streets chose not to attend. Family and friends of Matusiak, 23, decided to gather on the South Bank Back Field for a balloon release today PC Matthew Blades, a father of two, was killed when his police vehicle was struck head-on by a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough PC Tom Clough also died in the crash, which occurred around 10 seconds after a police pursuit of the Volkswagen had been called off.
Masked youths mark lives of killed A66 joyriders amid vigil for PCs
A throng of balaclava-clad youths set off flares and fireworks on Monday afternoon to remember the five A66 'joyriders' who died when they smashed into a police car.














