UP to a dozen police vehicles and a police helicopter were involved in a high-speed pursuit on Sunday (June 14) – which may have links to an ongoing drugs investigation.

The chase, which is thought to have reached speeds in excess of 90mph, began in Ferndown just before 10am on Sunday when officers in an unmarked police car tried to stop a grey Volkswagen Passat.

The car tore off at speed, hitting a car waiting at traffic lights near the fire station.

Officers caught it up near Dudsbury Golf course and the pursuit continued through Parley, Kinson, and Longham, taking a circular route back to Hurn, before heading south down the A338 Spur Road, as the driver tried to shake off police.

The driver took the Blackwater exit and the chase finally ended after more than an hour on a mini roundabout in Hurn Road, St Catherine’s Hill, Christchurch.

The car was penned in and trapped by some five police cars, just before it would have entered a residential area. The driver, a local man, was arrested and was in police custody last night.

No one was hurt in the incident, but a number of police cars and the fleeing car were damaged.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing armed officers at the scene, and “packages” being taken from the man and removed in plastic bags.

Jean Lord, saw it unfold from the roof of her flat in Marlow Drive.

She said: “Suddenly there was a mass of police cars. One went on the other side of the road and just trapped him.

“The car was turned round and pointing totally in the wrong direction. Two or three of the police cars had dents in their sides.”

She saw the police officers leap from their cars and arrest the driver.

“He had his hands cuffed and I watched them search his pockets. They took two things out and put them in a plastic bag and put them in the police car.”

Sgt Steve Quill of Ferndown Road Traffic Policing told the Echo: “Careful decisions have to be made in a high speed chase considering the risk to the public, the offences committed by the offender and the risk in stopping the offender. This was a successful conclusion to what was potentially a dangerous situation.”

The vehicle has been taken away for forensic examination.