Manchester
The incident occurred just before 1:50am on 12 June at Middleton Police Station GMP

Two men have been arrested after accidently driving a stolen car into a police car park in Greater Manchester.

The men, aged 26 and 25, are accused of stealing a white Mercedes from an address in Eccles by taking the keys from inside the property after breaking in and driving off.

A few hours later, two men were seen driving the car down the entrance ramp to the car park at Middleton Police Station but were forced to stop at the security gates.

Unable to get past the gate's fob system, the driver attempted to reverse the car back up the ramp but was blocked in by two police vans who were waiting to gain entry via the gate.

Believing they had been tracked and caught for stealing the car, the driver drove up a grass verge before both men jumped out the car and ran off.

The pair then ran towards a nearby bridge and jumped into a river during their attempts to escape. After wading through the water and getting out of the river, the men then continued their getaway through the streets of Middleton.

Police officers and a dog were dispatched to find the men and a short time later they were arrested on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle and a section 4 road traffic accident offence.

Detective Inspector Lee Hopwood, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "Obviously these two men did not realise that they were driving a stolen car into a police station, so when they saw the vans behind them waiting to get in the car park, they panicked.

"The search for the two offenders got under way very quickly and a lot of good work went into finding them.

"It was quite a surprise to us as it is not every day that suspected criminals bring stolen cars straight to the police station."