An ambulance containing a patient and a paramedic was stolen from outside a busy British hospital. A huge police operation was launched last night after the theft from Royal Stoke Hospital with a dog handler and force plane spotted around Chesterton.

Now officers have confirmed a 31-year-old is in custody having been arrested on suspicion of kidnap and other offences. It's understood no keys had been left in the ambulance at the time of the incident. The incident unfolded at around 8.15pm last night when the ambulance was taken from outside the Royal Stoke University Hospital.

A spokeswoman for Staffordshire Police said: "We were called after a man got into an ambulance while it was parked at the hospital and drove off. A paramedic, a patient and another person were in the back of the ambulance at the time it was taken."

Quick-thinking cops soon caught up with the ambulance and followed it until it stopped at the Esso petrol station on the A34 at the junction of Liverpool Road and London Road on the outskirts of Chesterton.

A police dog and handler were deployed with a search taking place on marshland off London Road.

The person tried to flee but was stopped by a dog.

Subsequently a 31-year-old man, from Stoke-on-Trent, has been arrested on suspicion of kidnap, vehicle theft, drink driving and failing to provide a specimen for analysis.

The spokeswoman added: "He will be questioned in custody today. No one from inside the ambulance was injured."

Witnesses should call the police on 101 and quote incident number 743 of March 25.