Officers from Merseyside police roads Traffic ream used a TPAC – a tactic designed to contain the vehicle – to prevent the boys from being able to flee.

Referring to the incident on its Twitter feed, Merseyside Police’s roads policing unit posted a short video of officers arriving at the scene, adding the TPAC had prevented the need for a police chase.

It added: “Youths had flagged down member of public in Astra as struggling with putting lights on!”