“Alright are ya?”

Dozens of police officers assisted by dogs from West Mercia and North Wales forces launched a massive manhunt for three men suspected of raiding Machynlleth Barclays Bank shortly before noon today.

The search turned to the Rhallt after a police pursuit forced the men to abandon their Mercedes getaway car in the Flash Car Park around 2pm before fleeing north on foot.

The Dyfed-Powys Police helicopter was scrambled and while officers launched a frantic search of acres of fields and woodland, the farmer, who we have chosen not to name for security reasons, became suspicious of noises coming from a field away from where the main search was being carried out.

“I went to have a look and noticed some plastic bags at the edge of a bush and as I bent down to pick them up I saw three pairs of eyes in there looking back at me!” he said. “All I could think of to say was ‘alright are ya?’ and they even replied ‘yeah fine thanks’ In Midlands accents and then I walked away.

“I climbed over the stile and walked quickly across the field to tell the wife that they are over there in the bushes. By the time we got to the police a few minutes later we saw them running across the field and fair play to the officer he took off after them straight away. We could see that two of them had left one lagging quite a way behind and this was the one that they caught.”

It is believed that the officer co-ordinated with a dog handler who apprehended the suspect but the remaining two escaped into a wooded gully and appear to have evaded officers as the search was scaled down around 8pm as light started to fade.

Police have recovered money in bags close to where the man was caught. Forensic officers have removed the abandoned Mercedes.

The drama has gripped Welshpool and even led to mywelshpool crashing for some time as our man on the spot kept readers up to date with tweets and Facebook messages from the scene.

Around 30 officers conducted the search from Welshpool, Newtown, Llanidloes, Aberystwyth, West Mercia and North Wales Police. At one point the search switched rapidly to Trewern where two men were stopped in a car but this turned out to be a false alarm as focus soon returned to the Rhallt.

With the two white men still on the run tonight, Dyfed-Powys Police has asked the public to remain vigilant and to call 999 immediately if someone is acting suspiciously.