POLICE are promising to take action after three cars were 'hijacked' in the space of eight days.

All the vehicles were stolen from their owners in the Prestwich area. Now the local police chief has said that extra manpower will be brought in to tackle the problem.

In one incident a couple were parked in their silver Audi A4 in Hope Road at 10.10pm on Monday.

A dark coloured vehicle pulled up alongside and three men, all wearing balaclavas, got out of the car, threatened the man and woman with a metal bar and a wrench, and demanded the car keys.

The gang forced the couple out of the car, and made the woman hand over her Rotary watch worth £700. They also stole mobile phones and cash. Two men drove away in the Audi, followed by the other car.

The Audi, registration MJ52 NSZ, is still missing.

On Tuesday night, a 27-year-old man from London had his £17,000 VW Golf V5 stolen in Bury Old Road.

The driver was in the car talking on his mobile phone at 8.30pm when he was threatened by two masked men and ordered to hand over the car keys.

In a third incident, thieves told a woman to leave them alone as they stole her husband's Ford Transit.

One of four masked raiders was armed with a handgun, but he did not threaten the 30-year-old woman with it when she tried to stop them taking the vehicle.

The robbery happened outside the woman's home in Hastings Road at 9pm on Thursday last week.

Inspector David Jones, head of Prestwich and Whitefield Township, said: "We are investigating these offences and take them very seriously. In the coming weeks we are looking at providing extra resources.

"I don't want to reveal anything specific, but there will be extra officers in the area carrying out a variety of duties to help combat this."

He added: "We are concerned about these incidents and have made some arrests, but the situation is not as bad as in other parts of Manchester where they are in double figures. But I don't want to see it get any worse."