West Midlands police have released shocking video footage of dozens of drug addicts sprinting to a dealer’s car just seconds after he arrived on a housing estate.

The clip was filmed on a CCTV camera just yards from a children’s playground at around 8.30am in the Bordesley Green area of Birmingham.

West Midlands police’s DCI Nick Walton told the BBC: “You'd imagine drug transactions are carried out in a discreet manner, but the footage we obtained shows around 30 people rush towards the dealer's car in broad daylight.”

Download the new Independent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

“I'd never seen anything like it in my police career. It was clear we needed to take decisive action to tackle the problem. No one should be expected to put up with drug dealing on their doorstep.”

The clip appeared in an episode of the BBC1 series Caught Red Handed this morning, with officers revealing it formed part of the evidence for Operation No Deal - a Birmingham-wide campaign to tackle drug dealing.

Operation No Deal eventually led to 29 men receiving prison sentences.

Using miniature cameras, detectives followed suspected dealers around Birmingham, capturing many of them selling heroin and crack cocaine in parks and children’s playgrounds, as well as on the street.

Speaking about Operation No Deal, DCI Walton said it had “fundamentally improved areas of Birmingham that had been blighted by drugs. Local residents are telling us they feel safer and more comfortable in their communities.”

He added: “‘We achieved a 100 per cent success rate with every one of our targets arrested and put before the courts…The evidence we'd secured against them was so strong that they all pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.”

Mobile phones confiscated during the arrests revealed drug suppliers were receiving up to 650 calls and bringing in around £8,000 every day.