Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cooke said today it had been 'very tough' for the town to be in the spotlight but said police are 'doing a sterling job' and denied the town was 'lawless'.It follows a week of escalating violence thought to be linked to a gangland war between two factions of a local organised crime group, with police previously resorting to surveillance tactics employed in Northern Ireland.PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough were killed along with five youths in a head-on crash last Saturday, after the car the group were in went the wrong way on the A66 and smashed into the marked police car.A series of ram raids on homes across the area are thought to be linked to the incident, with the young men and teens in the car said to have been pursuing rival gang members shortly before their deaths.The small area of Middlesbrough also saw a fatal housefire this week, which killed Natalie McDonald, 34, and Valentina Foster, seven – although thought to be related to gangs in the area, it is not directly connected to last Saturday's crash at this stage.And fires were seen in local fields after at least five cars were set alight at a balloon release in memory of one of the crash victims. Police have made a series of arrests in recent days targeting the wider crime group, including seven more on Friday, bringing the total to 24. Responding to accusations the town is 'lawless,' Mr Cooke said today: 'I find that rather ironic given the number of arrests that have already been made. Police are doing an absolutely sterling job to round up as many people as possible.'Contradicting comments made by his predecessor Andy Preston yesterday, the Labour mayor claimed crime had reduced in the last two years and Cleveland Police 'had been making progress'. A house in Acklam, Middlesbrough, linked to the father of Cole Worthy, one of the young men who died in the A66 crash, was rammed hours before Saturday's collisionSeveral cars were set ablaze by youths in a field near Haswell in County Durham on Thursday, purportedly during a balloon release for one of the crash victims Armed police swoop on an address five miles from Grangetown, Middlesbrough, on Thursday nightA house in the South Bank area of Middlesbrough was rammed by a car on Wednesday