Police searching for alleged rapist and abductor 'make arrest after overnight standoff'

Police hunting a fugitive over the rape of three women have reportedly arrested a man after a standoff with officers overnight.

The town of Congleton became the scene of a nationwide manhunt after two women were forced into a car at around 6.45pm on Sunday evening.

Following a police pursuit, the suspect reportedly climbed a tree and refused to come down.

Negotiators and paramedics were deployed to the scene and the man was eventually taken into custody in the early hours of Monday morning.

Police said the women had been left "extremely shaken" as a result of their ordeal but were unhurt.

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.