A TAXI driver is being hunted by police after a teenage girl said he raped her, police said last night.

The 19-year-old telephoned police to say she had been raped after getting into a taxi in Newcastle city centre and being driven across the River Tyne to Gateshead.

Northumbria Police described the taxi driver as white, in his early to mid-20s, with spiky hair.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: ''We received a call from a 19-year-old local female reporting she had been raped by a taxi driver.

''She had been picked up at 1am on Saturday morning from the Pilgrim Street area of Newcastle and the offence happened on the Felling bypass.