Shock discovery for wannabe copper thief

UK police are hunting for a scorched copper thief after finding a hacksaw embedded in an 11,000 V power cable on Saturday night.

The thief, who also left a lit blowtorch at the scene, is expected to be worse for wear after his shock.

"The sheer stupidity of cutting through power cables should be glaringly obvious to everyone," said Phil Wilson, customer operations manager with local power company Central Networks.

"At the very least, putting the hacksaw through the cable would have created an almighty bang and the line would have burned for quite a few seconds, showering them with molten copper.

"We can only assume they left in a great hurry or they were injured and were dragged away by an accomplice."

A search of local hospitals did not find the culprit.

Copper prices have more than doubled in recent years as demand for the metal skrocketed in China, causing a wave of copper thefts around the world.