Cockle pickers in gang war

Police in England were last night considering whether criminal charges would be brought against gangmasters involved in an alleged turf war between rival cockle picking gangs.

The battle for the lucrative cockles, which can fetch as much as £1000-a-tonne, resulted in more than 140 cocklers being stranded four miles off the coast of Cumbria yesterday.

Witnesses claimed the gangs were cut off by the tide after two tractors, believed to be carrying rival groups of cockle pickers from China, Scotland and Wales, collided.

On February 5 this year, 21 Chinese cockle pickers died in Morecambe Bay after being trapped by fast-rising tides.