Two men, aged 23 and 26, have been arrested after an illegal chop shop was discovered in Blackburn.

Officers from the Tac Ops team, who had been monitoring stolen vehicle movement, were alerted to the unit, on Canterbury Street in the town, after a tracker on a stolen vehicle had been activated.

On Tuesday, police attended the site and found two men in the middle of stripping two vehicles - a Range Rover, which had been stolen from Preston on Monday, and a Mercedes GLE that has been stolen from Manchester in March. 

A spokesperson for the police said: "Tac Ops officers have discovered a chop shop today in Blackburn.

"The Range Rover was stolen yesterday in Preston and the other car was a Mercedes GLE stolen from Manchester in March.

"Handily when officers arrived two males were mid-stripping the cars.

"Two arrested."

According to officers, the men had attempted to use a tracker blocker in order to evade the police, which had obviously failed.

The spokesperson added: "It was a tracker activation coupled with some good old police work around other vehicles, movements and Intel.

"They did have a tracker blocker but clearly not a very good one.

"Upsetting for the owners.

"Two lovely cars completely destroyed (Range Rover's interior removed)."

Police were called around 6.20pm on Monday after the owner of the Range Rover reported that it had been stolen from a car park in Syke Street in Preston.

The vehicle was later traced to the address in Canterbury Street, Blackburn.

Two men, a 26-year-old and a 23-year-old, both from Blackburn, were arrested on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle and were later released pending further investigation.