Hunt for armed bottle-o bandit

POLICE established a cordon around South Townsville in a bid to find the person responsible for the armed holdup of a business on Wednesday night.

The robbery of a bottle shop on Palmer St was reported to Queensland Police at 7pm.

Officers swarmed the area to try to locate the man, who remains at large.

It is unclear what weapon was used in the robbery or what was stolen.

Police continued their investigations overnight.

Meanwhile, reckless car thieves running riot on Townsville’s streets were captured in photos and videos by residents on Wednesday.

At 2.30am, rocks were reportedly thrown at vehicles on Ross River Rd, near the Healthlink Family Medical Centre, before two residents were chased by two stolen cars – a white Toyota RAV4 and a white Toyota Hilux – through Kirwan and Cranbrook.

Later that morning, residents reported seeing four stolen vehicles “hooning and driving incredibly dangerously” around town – a RAV4, Subaru, Skoda wagon and a Hilux.

The stolen Hilux was dumped on Oxford St, Hyde Park next to QML, and the Skoda reportedly blew a tyre in Marks St, Hermit Park where it was dumped.

Additionally, footage was shared of vehicles doing doughnuts near the Avenues Tavern.

A Heatley resident also shared video footage of shirtless, masked and gloved juvenile car thieves meeting up in front of her house.

One gave her the middle finger when he realised he was being filmed.

Just after 2.30pm, there were reports of a white Camry that was “all over the road” and “driving on the wrong side of the road” near James Cook University. Shortly after, police had a male in custody.