A TEENAGE have-a-go hero has spoken out about the terrifying moment he was chased by an axe wielding thief in broad daylight.

Kieran Bruton, 19, was working with his mother Lisa Roberts on her burger van on Wrexham Industrial Estate on Wednesday afternoon when he spotted a group of three men acting suspiciously.

The brave teenager, from Gresford, went to investigate and discovered two of the men had broken into a compound at Cytek Engineered Materials and said they were in the process of stealing wiring and cables, while a third man waited in the driver’s seat of a white Citroen van.

Fearless Kieran decided to confront the men.

“I shouted out to them, they ran to their vehicle and drove off,” said Kieran, who has just finished studying engineering at Yale College.

Determined to get the vehicle’s registration number, Kieran jumped into his mum’s Land Rover Freelander and gave chase.

But the teenager was terrified when the vehicle stopped suddenly and one of the men got out wielding an axe.

“When they stopped and the man got out with the axe I felt pretty shaken, but I had been determined to get the registration number,” said Kieran.

While a terrified Kieran frantically tried to drive off the axe-wielding maniac smashed his axe into the rear of the Freelander.

The criminals gave chase, but fortunately Kieran managed to give them the slip before calling his mother, who immediately reported the incident to police.

Proud Lisa said her son had behaved with tremendous courage in confronting the thieves.

She said: “He was very brave to stand up to these people and I’m just so glad that he wasn’t hurt.”

Lisa’s vehicle suffered about £700 worth of damage.

Detectives are now investigating the incident and are urging witnesses to come forward.

Inspector Paul Jones, commander of the Wrexham rural district, said: “I can confirm we did attend an incident at Wrexham Industrial Estate yesterday afternoon.

“No-one was hurt and our investigation is on-going.

“I would ask anyone who witnessed the incident to contact us on 101.”

Dave Humfress, safety health and environmental manager at Cytek, said the company had now increased security at the site.

He said: “An individual gained access to the site and attempted to remove scrap materials from our property. He was identified, and when challenged left the site without causing any damage.

“The police have been informed and the company has implemented additional security patrols on site as a precaution to prevent further occurrences.”