Police Vehicle Rammed In Dramatic Chase

There was high drama - Starsky & Hutch-style - when a police car was rammed by a stolen vehicle in Co Down on Saturday night.

Two men have been arrested after the incident which saw police officers responding to reports that a black Mercedes car had been taken from outside a house.

The patrol car was on route to Warrenpoint at about 11pm when the suspect vehicle was spotted. However, as they were responding to the call, they were rammed by the Mercedes.

Police are linking the incident to an earlier burglary in Newcastle, during which a Nissan Micra car was stolen.

It was stolen after what police have described as a "brief struggle" with the occupant of a house at Castleridge Court. He was said to be shaken but otherwise unhurt.

The car stolen in Warrenpoint was taken from a house at Lagan Court. It was also recovered and no-one was injured.

Meanwhile, a gun has been stolen from the house of a police officer during a burglary near Templepatrick in Co Antrim.

His legally held handgun and a car were both taken during the so-called creeper burglary on the Seven Mile Straight in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The car, a Mini Cooper, was later found by police abandoned in the Stewartstown Road area of west Belfast.

Several other items were taken in the burglary.

Elsewhere, the police have appealed to anyone with information about a north Belfast robbery to contact them.

A female member of staff was struck in the face by a masked man armed with a handgun during a robbery at an off-licence.

The incident happened on Saturday on the Ardoyne Road.

The woman's attacker made off with a sum of cash. According to a police spokeswoman, she was left "badly shaken but otherwise physically unhurt".

(BMcC)