THREE people were arrested after they were caught hiding in undergrowth following a dramatic police chase near York.

Officers spent half an hour scouring the Naburn area on Tuesday night after the thieves abandoned a flat-bed lorry that had been reported stolen from a company on Fulford Industrial Estate earlier that evening.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said the lorry was reported missing at 7.45pm and officers spotted the vehicle and a Ford Mondeo following the trailer a short time later.

As police tried to get the lorry driver to pull over, three men in the lorry and the Ford jumped out of the vehicles and ran off.

Teams of police descended on the village, and local residents reported as many as a dozen police vehicles in the area.

Jenny Balding, clerk of Naburn Parish Council, said: “It really is a sleepy village here and is very unusual to have any police activity here.”

Officers searched the area on foot and found three men hiding in undergrowth at about 8.35pm, the force spokesman said.

All were arrested of suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle.

Two are aged 44 and one 22, and all are from Doncaster.

All three have now been released on bail to allow for further police inquiries.

Police ask anyone with information to phone them on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.