A HIGH-SPEED police chase took place through the streets of Stroud today, March 20, in an attempt to catch a pervert who had exposed himself to a lone woman minutes earlier.

The woman reported the distressing incident to officers at 1.35pm this afternoon, saying that he had flashed her on the canal path near Waitrose in Stroud.

She then spotted him minutes later at around 1.50pm outside Café Fifteen on a white mountain type bike near the Subscription Rooms.

Officers were quickly dispatched in order to catch and question the suspect, with several police cars, vans and trucks giving chase through the streets of Stroud.

Members of the public were seen directing officers after he disappeared down side streets.

Despite the officers best efforts which saw them speeding up the pedestrian High Street and along Lansdown, and even ramming the suspect using a controlled crash technique on Cornhill, the flasher escaped.

One witness the chase said: "I saw the police car careering towards a scruffy bloke on a bike.

"They hit the bike quite hard, you could tell that they did it on purpose to try and stop him - but despite it being a fair old whack he managed to recover and speed off." 

The offender, who was last seen near Waitrose on London Road, was described by the victim as a white male with a grey, gaunt complexion. 

He has a long, slim face and he looked unkempt in appearance and is said to have been wearing a black coat which was waist length, black tracksuit bottoms with a white stripe on the bottom and darker coloured trainers.

Anyone with information should call 101 and quote incident 206 of March 20.