A doctor, a nurse and a teacher were among 60 people arrested as part of an Internet child pornography crackdown, police revealed yesterday.

More than 200 officers recovered thousands of pornographic images showing children as young as two being sexually abused.

Northumbria Police officers searched 50 houses and seized more than 100 computers containing thousands of images.

Detective Chief Inspector Michael Jones said he was shocked at the content but believed this would not be the last operation of its kind.

He said: "I am not surprised that there were 60 people in Northumberland who are accessing child porn, because I think there are a lot more out there."

Speaking at a Press conference at Northumbria Police headquarters, Det Chief Jones said 57 men and four women had been arrested over the past six weeks.

He said: "There are abusers in every class of society and included in these arrests are people from respected professions.

"These included a doctor, a nurse, a foster carer, a teacher, a retired social worker and a university lecturer. There are people from all walks of life included in this trawl."

A number of retired people and students were among the arrested, with the youngest aged 23 and the oldest 71.

Officers recovered more than 100 computers and hard drives, and thousands of CDs, floppy discs and DVDs containing indecent images.

Included in the arrests was one man who had hidden more than 12,000 indecent images of children inside a computer game stored on his computer.

The arrests were part of the global Operation Ore, which also netted two police officers who worked on the inquiry into the deaths of Soham girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman earlier this year.