A BRADFORD councillor has said an incident involving masked men apparently trying to steal cars and burgle homes in Cottingley could be a re-occurence of similar incidents in nearby villages in recent years.

The incident in the early of Wednesday mornng saw officers rushed to Woodside Crescent and a NPAS (National Police Air Service) helicopter deployed to help with the search for five men in balaclavas, who were captured on CCTV trying to break into cars and houses.

A local resident said after trying to get into his home the masked men moved down the street trying to break into a number of cars and houses before running away to a nearby woods.

Just a few streets away, there was a separate incident later that morning.

Two vehicles were stolen from a property in a burglary, but they have since been recovered by police.

A ward councillor who covers the Cottingley area, Cllr Naveed Riaz (Cons, Bingley Rural) thinks that the gang might have been looking to steal high performance cars.

"These gangs steal high performance cars and then strip them down and sell them off for parts on websites like eBay.

"We've had similar incidents happen like this before in other areas on my ward at Cullingworth and Wilsden.

"This problem seems to reoccur every year in a different village.

"They did it over a period of two or three days and one of the places they targeted was my home. It

 was quite scary. My mother thought they were delivering something. She actually went out and scared them off."

"It's quite a worrying thing," said Cllr Riaz, who added that people should always "take extra care and leave these incidents to police".

He is asking local residents to put their safety first and do not confront gangs if they are carrying out criminal activity near their homes.

"They are criminals and this is their life," said Cllr Riaz. "Think of your safety first. At the end of the day, it's just a car and all they want is the keys. You don't need to go out your way to hide your keys."

"Is the car worth getting hurt? I always value human life first.

"I have faith in the police to resolve these issues."