Police raided scrap metal yards across Greater Manchester as part of a crackdown on theft of cable from railways lines.

British Transport Police visited 18 premises as part of a campaign to tackle record levels of copper cable theft.

Last year thieves stole metal worth £770m across Britain, most of it from railways lines.

In Greater Manchester, Network Rail reported 57 thefts compared to 38 the year before.

The spike in incidents is being blamed on a rise in the price of copper fuelled by demand from China.

The M.E.N joined the BTP investigators yesterday at IJ Kayes, a scrap meal yard on Sandfield Lane in Levenshulme.

The owner was given a warning for poor record keeping while police investigate who sold some scrap metal to the yard for £38.

Criminals who used to commit burglary or car crime are turning their attention to the theft of copper cable as prices rise, police believe.

Thieves can expect to get £2.50 per kilo of copper at current prices.

But the crime causes severe delays on the rail network.

Det Insp Andrea Rainey, of British Transport Police, said: "This kind of crime stops people from getting from A to B. A lot of people travel on the network and this is a massive issue.

"It could be drug addicts who are just trying fund their next fix by taking copper from the railway line. It causes massive disruption across the country.

"People on trains who are caught up in a delay might only hear that it is something to do with a signalling failure but in the vast majority of those cases it is down to the theft of cabling from the railway line.

"And the people who are taking the copper are risking their lives to do it. The railways are safe to travel on but they are not safe if you are committing crime when high speeds trains are going past.

"I’m amazed we have not suffered more fatalities in the railways."

BTP say no other suspected stolen cable was found at any of the other scrap yards raided.

The M.E.N's John Scheerhout joined BTP officers as they carried out the raids.

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