West Yorkshire is bucking a trend which has seen an increase in street robberies across the country.

Home Office figures are expected to reveal that muggings rose by nearly 40 per cent in some parts of the UK last year.

And a newspaper's survey of half the police forces in England and Wales revealed that robberies were up overall by five per cent.

But the latest figures for the West Yorkshire force show that robberies have plummeted.

Between April and June this year there were 532 robberies in the county, compared with 636 the previous year - a reduction of 16 per cent.

The rise in street robberies in other parts of the country is being blamed on the increased popularity of hi-tech gadgets like iPods, MP3 players and internet-connected mobile phones.

The Metropolitan Police saw a five-fold increase in muggings and snatch thefts of iPods in six months.

But Detective Inspector Noel Devine, of Bradford North CID, said that since the start of June they had received no reports of iPods or MP3 players being taken in thefts or robberies.

However, muggings for mobile phones was on the rise, he warned.

Across the county the theft of mobile phones can account for 35 per cent of all personal robberies and one in six victims of street robbery is aged between 12 and 16.

"We are getting about two a week on average, which is a little bit up on last year. We have had about 30 such incidents since June," said Det Insp Devine.

"We significantly reduced these type of offences last year and the previous year, but we're now at the point of having to maintain our performance."

Det Insp Devine said police had dealt with a number of bullying type robberies where young people were threatened and intimidated, but no actual violence was used.

He said: "The muggers will often engage them in conversation and ask to see their mobile phones before taking them."

Det Insp Devine said new trends in crime often started in the south and muggers targeting iPods may not yet be prolific in Bradford.

But he said people in the district were much more aware about personal safety.

"We have done a lot of work on that and school children are much more aware of their personal safety now. People tend to leave valuable things like that at home or not hold them in their hand.

"The work we have put into reducing robberies is paying off. But we still want to put across the message to people not to display their mobile phones."