The Queen travelled on the Metro system

Northumbria Police said the streaker was being held for questioning at a police station in Newcastle.

A force spokesman said: "We can confirm a man was arrested today after streaking in Neville Street seconds before the Queen arrived at Newcastle Cathedral.

"He was arrested near the Cathedral."

The Queen unveiled the statue of Newcastle-born Cardinal Hume at St Mary's Cathedral, near the city's central station.

It was the first time a monarch has honoured a Catholic leader in this way since the Reformation.

Earlier, some 30,000 people turned out, on both banks of the River Tyne, to see the Queen open the futuristic Millennium Bridge.

With the push of a button, she lowered the elliptical structure, which in its elevated position allows ships to pass underneath.

Jubilee cake

Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, she also visited Sunderland's Winter Gardens, home of 1,500 exotic plants in an indoor, sub-tropical climate.

Costing £3.8m, the new attraction replaces the city's Victorian Winter Gardens, which were destroyed during a World War II bombing raid.

The Queen met winners of a Jubilee Day portrait competition and viewed their paintings of her before going on a walkabout in Sunderland's Mowbray Park.

Later she took a trip on the Tyne and Wear Metro to formally open the £97m extension to Sunderland.

She was also due to open a Golden Jubilee children's party, and cutting a Jubilee cake, for South Tyneside youngsters at St Joseph's Catholic primary school in Fellgate.