Police have launched a crackdown on street robbers who target people with mobile phones.

The new National Mobile Phone Crime Unit aims to slash the 160 mobile phone robberies that happen in Britain every day, which account for half of all street crime in the UK.

Information about how mobile phone criminals are operating will be fed back from the unit to officers tackling the problem on the ground in Bradford.

But police in the city are already winning the fight against mobile phone muggers, who commit less than a third of street robberies in the district.

Crime initiatives like extra police patrols, CCTV cameras and a partnership approach with street wardens and community officers have made the city centre a safer place.

In the three months from July to the end of September this year there were 13 street robberies and 74 thefts from the person in the city centre, compared with 27 robberies and 127 thefts for the same period last year.

And across the whole of the Bradford district, of 610 robberies of all descriptions committed, 176 - or 28.9 per cent - included a mobile among the items stolen.

Robberies where the only property taken was a mobile accounted for 93 offences, only 15.2 per cent of the total.

But police are still warning people to be wary about using their mobiles in public - especially younger people who tend to be more vulnerable.

Tim Redhead, Bradford City Centre Unit Inspector, said: "If people have to use their mobiles on the street they should do it discreetly. Ideally, they should keep them in their pockets or handbags, out of sight. People become targeted when they are seen either carrying or using the handsets, particularly in dark, secluded areas.

"There are high numbers of young people who are targeted because they tend to use them more and are less aware of the dangers. A lot of handsets are in the possession of schoolchildren so we would urge parents to make sure they advise their children about the dangers.