A SPATE of armed robberies is being linked to two gangs operating out of Liverpool and Manchester.

Detectives from Cleveland and North Yorkshire forces are working with officers in the North-West to foil the violent robbers, who have netted thousands of pounds from security vans.

BBC's Crimewatch featured a reconstruction of the Manchester gang on Monday night after security guards foiled a raid at a petrol station near the M1 in North Yorkshire.

However, the same gang, which was armed with a machete, is believed to have been responsible for a number of raids in the region, including three on Teesside and one in York this year.

Two more attacks on security guards outside supermarkets on Teesside are being linked to an organised gang of armed robbers working out of Liverpool.

The ones linked to the Manchester gang include one at a Tesco Express store in the High Street, Norton, near Stockton, on February 14; one on June 5 at Tesco Express, in Acomb Wood Lane, York; and one on July 9 at Tesco Express, in Parliament Road, Middlesbrough.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "We are very pleased with the number of calls the incident room received following the Crimewatch programme.

"We got between 60 and 70 people contacting police afterwards.

"With that amount of information, our task now is to collate the information and analyse it, to see exactly what we have got."

In all of the robberies, cars were stolen some days before the raids, then had their licence plates changed, and were abandoned afterwards.

In the last raid, the car was dumped at the Great Yorkshire Showground, in Harrogate.

Acting Detective Inspector Keith Dee, of Cleveland Police, said: "We believe there is a Manchester team responsible for several robberies around the country, including our area, and we are currently awaiting forensic results in relation to the Tesco robbery in Parliament Road.

"This crime was committed in an efficient and clinical manner.

"However, it was also committed using weapons, violence and in such a way that it will have a profound effect on some of the victims and witnesses."

Two robberies in the Stockton area are being linked to a possible gang from the Liverpool area.

The first happened in November last year at the Tesco supermarket in Urlay Nook Road, Eaglescliffe, and the second was on February 5 at Sainsbury's, Bishopton Road West, in Stockton.

Two men from the Liverpool area were arrested earlier this year in connection with the robberies, but were later released