North London rugby coach chases down bike thief

A rugby coach from North London has described how he gave chase to a bike thief  who was riding down the road with a stolen bike over his shoulder.

The man, named only as Chris by the Islington Gazette, spotted three youths, one of them riding a bike and wheeling another - with a lock attached to its front wheel - along Danbury Street near Angel.

He said: "I asked them a few times to explain why the bike was still locked. But one individual put it on his back and he raced off."

The episode was caught on the dashcaam of a car following along the road, which forms part of Quietway 2.

“I chased them for 50 or 60 metres down the road," hec ontinued. "Then a postman got involved and a couple of neighbours came out and videoed it.”

The man dropped the bike into the road, but there was still more to come, with Chris revealing he had a fight with one of the other pair of suspected thieves a short distance away.

“The two other original individuals I saw with the bike tried to saunter past as though nothing had happened,” he explained. “I tried a citizen’s arrest on one of them and then there was a bit of fisticuffs.”

Adding that "We all need to be vigilant but should not be afraid of giving chase when needed," the man he had tried to arrest would be “feeling sore this morning.”

Police are now trying to trace the owner of the bike, who is asked to contact them on 101.