Three people arrested after Hartlepool police chase involving suspected stolen car

Cleveland Police have confirmed that officers were called to a pursuit involving several police vehicles at 9.50am this morning.

The chase started in Fulthorpe Avenue, in the King Oswy area of Hartlepool, and came to a dramatic end when several police cars surrounded the Volkswagen and brought it to a stop in the shadow of Middleton Grange Shopping Centre.

Shocked shoppers watched as the vehicles came to a halt at the war memorial at Victory Square.

The operation resulted in two men and a woman being arrested by officers.

The incident was filmed by a crew attached to the traffic unit as part of the Police Interceptors TV show, which returned to television screens this week.

The chase, which involved a suspected stolen car from Hartlepool, lasted around 15 minutes and saw several police vehicles called to pursue the vehicle.

During the incident the car travelled down Fulthorpe Avenue, West View Road, Davison Drive, Winterbottom Avenue, Raby Road, passing the busy Morrisons supermarket and it was stopped by police in Victoria Road, opposite the Civic Centre.

Police said the occupants of the car then made off from the vehicle on foot and were chased by officers before they were detained at 10.50am.

A spokeswoman for the force said: "We were called to a suspected police pursuit at 9.:50am this morning.

"Three people have been arrested in connection with it."

• The new series of Police Interceptors, featuring officers from the Cleveland and Durham Specialist Operations Unit (CDSOU), started on Monday.

The Channel 5 programme, which regularly pulls in more than one million viewers per episode, follows officers as they deal with collisions, people in possession of weapons and using police dogs to search for suspects and drugs.

The CDSOU will feature in eight episodes, with a further series to follow later in the year.