FOUR deadly weapons have been taken off North Yorkshire’s streets thanks to the swift response of council CCTV operators and police.

It follows a knife point robbery in Harrogate which happened at around 3.30pm on Knaresborough Road on Saturday (July 23).

Officers had been on the hunt for those responsible ever since, and yesterday (July 24), the council’s eagle-eyed CCTV operators spotted three males in the town who matched the description of the suspects.

Response team officers, and Neighbourhood Policing officers from North Yorkshire Police were swiftly in the area and spotted the group on Parliament Street.

After attempting to stop them, the group fled, leading to separate foot chases in the town centre.

The three males were quickly tackled to the floor before being detained and found to be in possession of weapons which included a glass ball in a sock and three large blades.

The three 18-year-olds, from Leeds and Sheffield, were arrested on suspicion of being in possession of an offensive weapon in a public place and robbery. One of the males was also arrested for assaulting a police officer.

All three remain in custody for questioning.

A spokeswoman for the force said: “Thankfully, incidents like this are rare in our county but tackling violent crime and taking horrific weapons such as these off our streets is a priority for us.

“We are absolutely committed to doing all we can to prevent this and to prosecute those who commit or attempt to commit such offences.

“If you have any information that could assist our investigation, including any dash-cam footage that may have captured the robbery, please email cidharrogate@northyorkshire.police.uk or call 101 quoting reference 12220129010.”