A pensioner has been arrested by police investigating alleged attacks on floral tributes to M62 shooting victim Yassar Yaqub.

Officers are quizzing a 66-year-old man after tributes were reported damaged on the motorway slip-road near Ainley Top roundabout.

Police shot Crosland Moor father-of-two Yassar through the windscreen of a white Audi in January. Police had stopped the car in a pre-planned operation following a tip-off to police that he was in possession of an illegal firearm.

An inquest later heard that a gun had been found in the footwell of the passenger seat where Yassar was sitting when he was shot three times in the chest.

A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire Police said the tributes had been damaged on Friday morning and added: “A man, from Huddersfield, was caught by police with a knife and was causing damage to floral tributes at the roadside.

“He was arrested for possession of a bladed article in a public place and criminal damage.

He remains in police custody and enquiries are ongoing.”

Yassar’s father, Mohammed Yaqub, and his wife Sofia, have been devastated by their only son’s death.

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Mr Yaqub said: “Anyone with a heart would not do that. I feel very sad that someone should do such a thing.”

He said the tributes had become a target for vandals in recent weeks and this was not the first occasion they had been damaged.