POLICE covered around 10 miles between Cinderford and Lydney in just seven minutes to collar a trio of early morning thieves.

A neighbour in Forest Road called police around 5am on Friday morning requesting an urgent response because of suspicious activity on Forest Road near what Gloucestershire Police described as a 'light railway station'.

Officers jumped into a car at Cinderford police station and within seven minutes they were giving chase to three suspected burglars.

Despite hiding behind nearby buildings in the hope of giving officers the slip, the three local men, aged 18, 19 and 23 were arrested on suspicion of burglary and taken into custody.

Police say a number of high value items wer recovered during the inquiry and further investigations are being made into this and other burglaries in the past few weeks.

Acting Police Sergeant James Wyatt, of Forest incident resolution team, said: "This was an excellent piece of work by our officers.

"They deployed by car from Cinderford police station in just seven minutes or so, rapidly assessed the situation on reaching the site, immediately gave chase on foot in the dark, and made successful arrests just a few minutes later.  "Our officers acted with the highest degree of professionalism, bringing the incident to a swift conclusion.

"My congratulations also to the very vigilant lady who called police.

"This was a highly responsible action and another example of the public and police working together to tackle crime." 

Anyone with any information about the incident should contact Gloucestershire Police on 101, quoting incident number 40 of 10 April.