'Town gripped by fear' and 'Nepal death toll climbs'
A number of Friday's papers are focusing on the situation in Middlesbrough following the A66 crash last weekend that killed seven. The Mirror describes a town "under siege". The past week has seen a woman and a seven-year-old killed in a house fire, while cars have been rammed into local homes. Residents are living in fear, it says, amid reports of a "gang turf war".
The Telegraph says hundreds of police officers have been deployed to Middlesbrough to "tackle Northern gang wars", as the town remains "on alert for further violence". Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornsby East, told the paper that people do not feel safe to go to the shops and are "trapped in their own homes".
"How did UK town become a war zone?" asks the front page of the Sun, running this next to a picture of Valentina Foster, the seven-year-old girl who died in a house fire earlier this week. A local told the paper that gang members could "do what they want to each other, but now we've got innocent people being killed".
The devastation in Nepal and Tibet after flash floods on Wednesday is front and centre for the Guardian, which says the international community is "scrambling" to provide aid. The paper says rescue teams are finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone, and more than 1,300 people remain missing.
Pictures of missing Britons in Nepal dominate the Times, which writes that the death toll is continuing to climb. According to the paper, both Nepal and China have warned that there could be a second potential flooding event, due to a fast-filling lake at the site of the first disastrous breach. It notes that, while the exact sequence of events is still being determined, experts believe the flash floods were caused by a collapsing glacier in Tibet.
Similarly, the front page of the Daily Mail reads: "Faces of Britons missing in Nepal". It says that British families are in "torturous limbo" as they try to contact loved ones who remain missing.
Though the front page of the Financial Times does carry a photograph of a mud-strewn street in Nepal, the leading story is dedicated to a potential lawsuit against Fifa president Gianni Infantino. It says Uefa is preparing to bring criminal legal proceedings against the football boss, after his failed plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors.
"China Embassy guards using their electroshock weapons to threaten protesters" reads the i Paper, which says the security team was "caught on camera" pointing stun batons at activists. It notes that such weapons are prohibited under Section 5 of the Firearms act, and reports the footage is being reviewed by Metropolitan Police.
The Daily Star says former Liverpool footballer Jamie Carragher is facing an £800,000 tax bill, declaring "Carra in the red".
Official figures show the number of asylum seekers being housed in British hotels has halved in the past year, which the Metro reporting that this is the lowest its been since 2022. The paper looks back on how the migrant crisis has unfolded over the last 12 months, and includes quotes from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who says the figures mean the government is "restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system".
The Daily Express also considers what it calls the "deportation crisis" in the UK, reporting 21,294 "foreign criminals" are "roaming the streets". It says this means the number of "crooks" in the community has grown by 1,000 in just three months.
