Police hunting fugitive Joseph McCann over three rapes have reportedly arrested a man after a standoff with officers overnight.
The suspect is reported to have climbed a tree and refused to come down when cornered by police in countryside outside Congleton late on Sunday.
Negotiators along with paramedics were sent to the scene and the man was eventually taken into custody in the early hours of Monday.
It has been reported it is McCann but Cheshire Constabulary have yet to confirm this.
The Cheshire town became the focus of a nationwide manhunt for the “extremely dangerous” McCann when two women were forced into a car at around 6.45pm on Sunday.
The vehicle made off after it was spotted and pursued by officers, before it hit another car and the driver fled.
Police said the women had been left “extremely shaken” as a result of their ordeal but were unhurt.
Cheshire Constabulary later said officers had tracked down a man wanted in connection with the abductions.
BBC News reported that the suspect was in a tree on Smithy Lane, a country road just outside the town.
Scotland Yard detectives previously launched a hunt for the suspected rapist and kidnapper after he allegedly snatched two women in their 20s off the streets in north London on April 25 in separate incidents.
He is also suspected of abducting a 21-year-old woman at knifepoint in Watford in the early hours of April 21 and raping her.
Officers believe McCann was being hidden by a friend or family member.
Scotland Yard offered a reward of up to £20,000 for information leading to his arrest and prosecution.
Source: Evening Standard Online
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