South Yorkshire Police are claiming success in reducing bike thefts from the city centre after a recent crackdown.

The force used bait bikes with tracking chips, and made arrests after thefts hit a peak in October and November last year, with around 70 bikes stolen in a one-month period.

The Sheffield Star reports that Inspector Neil Mutch told a meeting of the Sheffield city centre residents’ action group that "word had got around" among thieves.

In three years, 4,734 bikes were stolen in Sheffield, according to figures obtained by The Star, and only 264 were recovered.

Inspector Mutch said: “The issue we had in October to November was theft of pedal cycles, and we have had a lot of success tackling that.

“From mid-October to mid-November we had 70-odd bicycles stolen from the area.

“We started a lot of proactive work, including putting tracker chips in bicycles and we made a number of arrests from that, and the word has got around.

“We get about two or three a week now in the city centre, so that has been quite a positive turnaround.”