THIEVES put their own lives at risk to steal a large amount of live copper cable from an industrial estate over the weekend.

Police say the live cable would have been extremely dangerous to remove and the thieves would have been on the scene for a long time.

The raid happened at premises on the North West Industrial Estate in Peterlee at some point over the weekend A spokesman for Durham Police said: “The suspects would have used a vehicle and been on some time removing the cable.

“The cable was live and obviously was extremely dangerous to cut and remove”.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact Durham Police on 101.