A STOLEN digger was taken on a rampage, prompting a police chase and causing two crashes.

The £30,000 JCB was stolen from the Oakroyd estate off Bradford Road in Birkenshaw at 6.20pm on Thursday night.

It was being driven erratically down Moor Lane, smashing into parked cars, when a member of the public saw it and called the police.

A police car started to follow the JCB when the driver jumped from the cab and got into a Ford Focus, which had been driving alongside.

The car drove off at speed, chased by the police car, along Bradford Road, Nutter Lane, Nova Lane, Cambridge Road, Bradford Road, Gelderd Road at Gildersome and on to Leeds Road, where it crashed head-on into another police car.

The force of the collision sent the Ford Focus into the path of another vehicle, driven by a Birstall woman.

She suffered minor head injuries.

Two Leeds men, one aged 21 and the other 26, were arrested.

The incident caused disruption with the closure of Gelderd Road and Huddersfield Road.