POLICE are hunting a man who hijacked a delivery van at a motorway service station before leading the driver to a remote field and assaulting him.

The driver endured a four-hour ordeal after he was confronted by a man, who police believe could have been armed, at Rainton services on the A1, near Ripon, North Yorkshire.

The victim was sitting in his Mercedes van at about 3pm on Monday when a man opened the door and ordered him to drive north up the A1.

He was forced to turn off on to the A61 and drive into the village of Baldersby, where he was taken into a field near Busby Stoop, tied up and attacked. The van, which was carrying a large quantity of training shoes, was then stolen.

It took the driver four hours to escape and contact the police. He described his attacker as black, in his late 20s or early 30s, and wearing a long-sleeved jumper or jacket, and a baseball cap with a square logo.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "The victim felt something pressed against him, but nothing was actually seen, so we don't know whether it was a weapon or not."

A woman contacted police to report three men in two parked cars on a layby of the A61 Ripon to Thirsk road, just before the incident.

These men, along with any witnesses who saw the Mercedes van, registration number ROS 51S, are asked to ring Harrogate CID on (01423) 505541.

The incident was the second in the region in two months.

In May, a gang of men posed as police officers to persuade a lorry driver to pull over on the A66, near Scotch Corner.

He was threatened with a handgun and dumped in a country lane six hours later. His lorry, which had contained 12,000 bottles of vodka, was later found burnt out near Lanchester, County Durham.