A painting by Palestinian child refugees has been taken down from a North Tyneside Metro station following a threat to deface it.

The graffiti-style artwork, created by visitors from the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon, has been on display at Tynemouth Metro Station since 2012.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that the mural has now been removed by North Tyneside Council as a safety precaution and put into storage after the local authority had received a credible threat to deface it.

The Northern Echo: Former site of the mural North Tyneside Metro Station.Former site of the mural North Tyneside Metro Station. (Image: LDR)

It comes amid the ongoing conflict in the Gaza strip, as calls grew on Friday for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The removal of the mural sparked intrigue on X, formally Twitter, prompting several users to ask Metro operator Nexus for an explanation for the disappearance.

The Tyne and Wear Metro responded on X: “We have no connection with the mural in the market area at Tynemouth. We don’t own the market areas, we didn’t commission the mural and we haven’t had anything to do with it.”

North Tyneside Council declined to comment.

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The trip which led to the creation of the painting back in 2012 looked as though it might not have happened after the youngsters and their teachers were denied visas. However, following intervention from Tynemouth MP Sir Alan Campbell the children were soon issued with 10-day single entry visas from the camp to the UK.

It was the third visit made by children from the Shatila refugee camp in the previous four years.

The Shatila refugee camp is located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was established in 1948 and consisted of only around 500 homes. According to the United Nations, the number of homes has now grown tenfold.