Police have revealed how they weeded out a pop-up cannabis farm following a routine patrol of industrial units in King Charles' home town.

But the haul in Tetbury yielded so many cannabis plants that officers struggled to pack the confiscated evidence into their patrol van.

A spokesperson for the force said: "It's been quite the night for the Tetbury Neighbourhood Police Team. While patrolling some industrial units in the town, PC Callum Morley-Blackwell and PCSO Ed had occasion to challenge suspicious men who fled through one of the buildings."

Undeterred, the pair went on to search the unit for the suspects – whereupon they stumbled on a large cannabis factory, along with the suspects' living quarters, which had also been set up on site.

Some time later, with the help of colleagues drafted in from Dursley, the grow was dismantled - but not without difficulty.

The team added: "We have to confess that we ran out of extra large evidence bags and had to borrow the suspects duvet covers in order to recover all of the 225 plants.

"We nearly didn't get all the evidence in our van. We'll be happy to return the bedding if the owners would like to get in touch with us at Cirencester."

One local resident quipped: "To provide any information, ring the local station number and press the hash key to leave a message."

The discovery in Tetbury follows a related incident in November last year in the town when a man was arrested following a fire at a suspected cannabis grow. Police were called by the fire service at around 12.45pm on November 15, with a report of a fire at an industrial unit in Tetbury Industrial Estate, on Cirencester Road.

Three men were spotted running away from the scene, and one was detained nearby.

The force said: "The 26-year-old was arrested on suspicion of drugs manufacture/the production of a class B drug, namely cannabis."

Last year, police warned nationally that cannabis production sites were increasing on the high street due to the rise in vacant business addresses. 

But alongside this, a recent report by Total Landlord Insurance suggested that the trend for industrial estate use was waning. It said: "Until recently, cannabis cultivation was generally large scale, often taking place in industrial units, remote warehouses and disused farm buildings. Now, the police are increasingly finding cannabis farms in private rented properties and empty residential homes, many of which they describe as 'death traps'."