Two Rumanian youths aged 18 and 20 were arrested on the outskirts of Valladolid yesterday lunchtime just over an hour after they held up a jewellery store in Salamanca and escaped in a hijacked taxi.

The robbery took place at around 11.30am at an establishment on the Avenida Villamayor, where they attacked the owner and his wife, tied them up and locked them in a downstairs basement.

Making off with the contents of two display counter drawers, a jewellery pouch and sundry other items, the robbers flagged down a taxi and forced its driver to take them to Valladolid.

Police roadblocks were immediately set up on all the main exits of the city, and the taxi was initially sighted by a Guardia Civil patrol at 12.30pm in Tordesillas before being intercepted some fifteen minutes later in Arroyo de la Encomienda where the thieves were detained.