Motorbike thieves 'terrorised' Salford and Manchester women
Two thieves "terrorised" drivers and pedestrians as they rode around Manchester and Salford on a motorbike during a three-hour crime spree.
The pair smashed drivers' car windows as they pulled up at traffic lights to reach in and snatch bags and phones.
One got off the bike to wrestle items from pedestrians and punched a woman in the face in the spree, between 18:10 and 21:45 GMT on Wednesday.
Police said the targeting of five lone women was "nothing short of cowardly".
A 28-year-old woman walking in a car park off Pollard Street, Manchester, at 18:10 GMT was approached by one of the men whose punch made her fall to the ground, before he took her bag and phone and fled on the motorbike.
Women left 'shaken'
Two hours later a 33-year-old woman, who had stopped her Jaguar X Type car at traffic lights on Bury New Road, Broughton Park, had her window smashed and a man tried to grab her bag but fled with just a folder when she struggled.
Then at 20:30 GMT, a 26-year-old woman had her handbag stolen when a man smashed her car window in a car park off Stock Street East, Cheetham Hill.
Minutes later a woman, 32, was targeted as she walked along Clibran Street, Cheetham Hill, when a man on a motorbike grabbed her phone from her hand and rode off.
At 21:10 GMT a 26-year-old Toyota Yaris driver had her car's window smashed and bag snatched when she stopped at the junction of Cheetham Hill Road and Middleton Road.
Det Insp Andy Naismith said: "Two men have terrorised five women in separate yet deliberate and targeted robberies.
"All have been left understandably shaken by what has occurred.
"The actions of these two men are nothing short of cowardly."