Police have been called in to track down a mystery cat killer who appears to be targeting a North-East family.

The Bell family have lost seven of their beloved cats on or around Halloween, all of them poisoned by an unknown assassin.

The family has lost a total of nine cats during the past five years, and seven went missing or were found dead on or soon after October 31.

But now the killer appears to be targeting the family pets at random.

The family's last two cats were found poisoned just last week, and mum Pauline fears someone is targeting them, using slug pellets as poison.

Her three young daughters have been devastated by the killings, and have also found four of their pet rabbits poisoned.

Mrs Bell, of the Fallows, in Cockfield, County Durham, said she had been left traumatised by the poisonings.

The 32-year-old said: "I've always had cats, my parents loved them and my daughters adore them, but someone is poisoning them for some sick reason.

"The RSPCA has carried out tests on the bodies of six of my cats and all have been found with traces of Aldicarp in their stomachs, which is a poison used on slugs.

"The frightening thing is that traces of carrot and potato have been found in their stomachs, and I never feed them vegetables, so someone must be putting the poison onto the vegetables and feeding it to them.

"We dread Halloween, because that is when our cats are found dead - we love them and it's tearing us apart that someone would want to kill them."

Mrs Bell's first cat, Simba, died of poisoning just hours after it was shot with an air gun.

And two of the family's cats were found dead on the same day. Mrs Bell said that neighbours with cats had not suffered the same problems.

The police and RSPCA are investigating the incidents. A spokesman for Durham Police said: "We received information that a householder in Cockfield believes that two of her pets have been poisoned.

"The RSPCA has been informed and are also investigating, as well as specialists from a poisons unit.

"If a crime has been uncovered as a result of the examination of the cats then we will obviously investigate."