Suspected bike thief traced by severed finger

A suspected motorcycle thief has been traced by police after he left one of his fingers at a crime scene.

The severed finger was found at the Persimmon Homes building site in the West Harton area of South Shields when workers called police following the theft of a motorcycle on Tuesday.

Police found a man missing a finger in a nearby accident and emergency unit of a nearby hospital – they think the man may have been forced to rip the finger off after it became rapped under a crashed motorcycle.

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “The man is currently being attended to and will be questioned as soon as we are able to.”

The man had been transferred to the University of North Durham Hospital to have the finger reattached.