Hove police foil kidnapping (From The Argus)

Hove police foil kidnapping

11:01am Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A kidnapping was foiled yesterday after a dramatic police chase across Sussex.

Police in unmarked cars and the force helicopter pursued a BMW after a man was dragged into it off the street.

The officers had been taking part in an operation to stop suspicious vehicles in Hove but broke off to rescue the trapped man.

Stunned witnesses told how a high-speed chase through the city ended with the BMW crashing into a police van and two suspects being pinned to the floor and arrested.

The drama began in the early hours of yes terday, when the 38- year-old victim was bundled into a car in Hillingdon, near Heathrow Airport.

Police were alerted after the blue car stopped at a petrol station in West Drayton, near Uxbridge, and the hostage managed to tell a member of the public he had been kidnapped.

Hostage specialists from the Metropolitan Police alerted Sussex Police that the car could be heading to the Brighton area.

The BMW was picked up by police surveillance cameras as it headed towards the city on the A23.

The Sussex Police helicopter was scrambled from its base at Shoreham airport to track the car as it continued towards Hove.

Four pursuit cars and an unmarked van based at Hove were dispatched to intercept the BMW as it drove along Church Road.

The vehicles were taking part in a crackdown on suspect cars in Brighton and Hove which had started only 30 minutes earlier.

The BMW screeched around the corner from Church Road into Osborne Villas as the driver tried to shake off the chasing cars at 8.30am.

The driver crashed the BMW into the side of the police van which boxed it in so it could not move any further.

The car and its occupants were quickly surrounded as at least another four police vehicles arrived on the scene.

Two men were pulled from the car and handcuffed as they lay on the ground while the police helicopter hovered overhead.

Painter Jack Dwyer, 25, who was working at a nearby house, said: “The BMW came round the corner fairly fast, way over the speed limit.

There was a silver van with what looked like undercover police in it which boxed him in on the corner.

“They pulled the doors open and threw he men down onto the ground and handcuffed them.”

Irene Paddenburg said all three men were Asian.

She added: “The older one looked very pale and struggled to get out of the back of the car.

I never dreamt it was a kidnap.”

Inspector Jason Hazzard said two men were arrested on suspicion of false imprisonment.

He said: “At the request of the Metropolitan Police we stopped a blue BMW in the Church Road area.Two people are in police custody and a man will be interviewed to try to determine what happened. This coincided with an operation I am running in Hove to target suspicious vehicles.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman added: “Officers from Sussex arrested a 36-year-old man and a 26-year-old man on suspicion of abduction and drink driving.

“Both men are in custody at a Brighton police station and the 38-year-old was recovered safe and well.”