Northumbria Police have confirmed that four men died today while taking part in the 25th Great North Run.
The men were among around 50,000 people running the 13-mile course from Newcastle, across the famous Tyne bridge to Gateshead and on to South Shields in a bid to raise around £8 million for good causes.
Police said there had been no major incident and the deaths were unrelated.
Many of the runners in today's race reported feeling extremely hot as temperatures soared in the North East of England.
A Northumbria Police spokesman said: "I can confirm four male participants in the race have died, which is more than the usual one or two - but every year more people are taking part.
"We don't have any more details at the moment. The town is still very busy and we're hoping to be able to give further details soon."
