A British hopeful in the world-famous Dakar Rally from North Yorkshire has branded the cancellation of the gruelling cross-African event as a "disaster".

Duncan Tweedy, 44, who lives in Harrogate, but is formerly from York, said he had spent tens of thousands of pounds and a year of his life preparing for the famous endurance race.

Organisers announced on Friday that the rally would be cancelled for the first time in its 30-year history due to terrorism fears.

They made the move after the murder of a French tourist family in Mauritania was blamed on Islamic militants.

Mr Tweedy, who is the director of an interior design firm, said there was a despondent mood among the competitors gathered in Portugal for the planned start tomorrow.

He said many there felt it may mean the end of the rally for good.

He said: "It's just a disaster. It's a year's planning and an awful lot of money involved and all for what?"

Mr Tweedy said the competitors were informed of the cancellation at a meeting at noon on Friday and the teams were awash with rumours about what was the root cause.

He said: "What people are saying is that if terrorism can stop it one year, then surely it can the next year.

"I'm just a small fry here. There are teams here from all over the world - China, Russia - who've spent millions of pounds."

Mr Tweedy said the preparations for the 5,000-mile race had interrupted his Christmas and now it meant nothing. He had decided to do the rally as a "one-off" a year ago and as an independent entrant on his KTM motorbike he was aiming just to finish.

The race, formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally, has a fearsome reputation, with competitors in cars, trucks and motorbikes having to cope with massive sand dunes, searingly hot days and freezing nights as well as each other.

A number have died in the race and, famously, Baroness Thatcher's son Mark went missing during the 1982 event.

The French government has expressed concerns about the race following the shootings of four family members in an attack blamed on a terror group with links to al Qaida.