POLICE hunting a gunman who kidnapped a woman from her home have made an arrest, the Daily Echo can reveal.

It is understood a man from the New Forest was detained by officers last night.

Hampshire police say he is a 44-year-old who lives in the New Milton area and he remains in custody this morning having been arrested on suspicion of robbery.

As reported throughout the weekend, the man is believed to have struck twice in the space of a few days - firstly holding up a driver of a Porsche at Brockenhurst railway station and ordering him to drive him to a cash point.

That incident happened on December 4 - but ten days later the man struck again, this time targeting an elderly couple in their Lymington home. Holding a gun, he went into their house in Rookes Lane and demanded cash before taking the car from the driveway and forcing the woman inside.

He then set about a 15-minute journey in their Peugeot 207 through the area before he gave up and returned her home, later abandoning the car in nearby Newenham Road.

Police have spent the weekend trying to convince the man to give himself up through a series of appeals.