Nazir Afzal: West Midlands Police sorry for car stinger error

The stinger device burst Nazir Afzal's car tyres

A police force has apologised over a mistake which led to a former chief prosecutor's car tyres being burst during a police stop.

Nazir Afzal said he was slowing down for a police car when a "stinger" was thrown in front of his car as he was driving in Manchester on Sunday.

West Midlands Police (WMP) said an "administrative error" meant his car was incorrectly logged as stolen.

Mr Afzal has been contacted by the BBC for comment.

The former chief crown prosecutor for North West England from 2011 to 2015 said he was driving with his son in the car when he noticed a police car's blue lights behind him at about 23:30 BST.

He said he had been driving at about 20mph (32km/h) and "slowed down straight away, but two seconds later, I saw a stinger thrown in front of my car".

His car "immediately came to a stop" and an unmarked police car pulled up in front of it, Mr Afzal said.

Mr Afzal said he slowed down straight away when he noticed blue lights

WMP said it had looked into how this occurred and discovered it was an administrative error whereby one digit of a vehicle registration number of a stolen car was recorded incorrectly.

The force said it had apologised to Mr Afzal for the "inconvenience and upset caused" when his vehicle was stopped on the M56.

WMP added it had "put measures in place to ensure this doesn't happen again".

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [e-mail]