BY JESSICA ROUSE and LAUREN FREEMANTLE


UPDATE

Police have a wanted man in custody after a lengthy pursuit in the Hunter this morning.

Officers allegedly started to chase a 22-year-old man, who was driving a Mitsubishi Sedan on the Hunter Expressway near Heddon Greta after receiving word of his whereabouts just after 10am and pursued him west, before turning around and heading east on the wrong side of the road.

He stopped and a police car pulled up behind him and before taking off again he allegedly rammed the police car, a Ford Falcon Sedan, which caused the airbags to deploy leaving the two police officers inside with minor injuries. The police car was written off.

The chase continued on the M1 Pacific Motorway to Freemans Waterhole. It’s also believed at this point there was a female passenger in the wanted man’s car and she jumped out.

The 22-year-old kept going and then stopped again, carjacking another vehicle. The driver of the hijacked car, which is believed to be an Audi, jumped out and is uninjured.

Not long later, police managed to arrest him when he stopped for a third time near Sparks Road and he’s been taken into custody.

Investigations are continuing.


EARLIER 11am:

A man is in custody after a police pursuit across the Hunter this morning.

A car was pursued by police first on Newcastle Link Road at Edgeworth, and then onto the Hunter Expressway near Singleton.

The vehicle has now been stopped by police, and investigations are continuing.

Paul from Cessnock was on the road at the time and told 2NURFM News all he could do was quickly move out of the way and hope for the best.

“I moved over quickly to keep right away from him and he just went flying past. It was just awful, very awful. One was very powerless.”


EARLIER:

There have been reports of a car driving on the wrong side of the Hunter Expressway – heading towards Singleton in the southbound lane driving north.

Witnesses say they saw the car driving erratically near the Kurri Kurri exit before police attended the scene.

We’ll have more details as they come to hand.