Metro operator Nexus is warning offenders they will be caught and brought to justice.

It follows a series of incidents in the past week in which dozens of train windows have been smashed.

A gang travelling on a late night train from North Shields to Newcastle on Friday kicked out 19 windows.

Over the weekend, another 16 train windows were smashed in separate incidents and on Tuesday eight windows were smashed on a train in Wallsend.

Nexus says assaults are still very low on the network and passengers are safe.

Spokesman Tim Yeoman said: "We suspect that up to a point we know who a few of these people are and we would warn them that the net is very much closing in around them.

"We work closely with Northumbria Police and their dedicated Metro unit and we are targeting these people along with the police, and the police are in fact planning sting operations and we anticipate that they will be caught."