CLAIMS a man dressed as a clown is spooking North-East communities appear unfounded, according to police.

Rumours are rife on Facebook and Twitter of a man sitting in people’s gardens across Durham, tapping on windows and even slashing at people with a knife across Tyneside.

But both Northumbria and Durham police said they have not heard of any such incidents and have no evidence of them taking place.

One Twitter user wrote: ‘Apparently there’s a clown running around Durham. So glad I don’t live anywhere Durham right now’.

However, another wrote: ‘This clown thing is like a massive game of Chinese whispers unless there’s clowns in Durham, Whickham and Ryton’.

A third wrote: ‘The person who made up the rumours about this ‘killer clown’ in Durham must be pretty creased at the amount of people that believed it’.