A spokesperson for the star has reacted to the incident

Joe McElderry was forced to cancel a concert at the last-minute after learning that a death threat had been sent to the venue, it has been revealed. Shortly before he was due to take to the stage on Friday night, the 26-year-old was informed that a letter had been sent to the venue three days earlier, and immediately cancelled the gig at The Empire, in Consett, Co Durham. Joe and his team had not been informed of the threat prior to the performance, and quickly took action to evacuate the 500 concert-goers from the venue. A spokesperson for Joe told the Sun: "He was mortified to cancel. Had we known we'd have had extra security and it would have gone ahead."

Joe McElderry was forced to cancel a concert last week following a death threat

Joe himself took to Twitter to clarify the incident with his fans, writing: "Just to put the record straight, myself and my management team were totally unaware of any threat to me before last night's show. At 7.26pm last night I was infirmed of a suspicious letter that had been intercepted by Concett theatre management three days previous and learned of some of its contents. Upon hearing this, I immediately told the theatre manager that the show would not be going ahead and to get everybody out of the building safely ASAP."

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The star later took to Twitter to address the incident

The singer, who famously won the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009, managed to put the incident behind him the following night, and performed to an excited crowd in Whitley Bay. He later tweeted: "Thank you for being a wonderful audience tonight! So much fun!"

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